


Cherry Blossom Alternative

by WingedLadyColette



Category: Naruto
Genre: AU, Alternate Timeline, Alternate Universe, Child, F/M, Manmaru Seto, Timeline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-07-26 14:47:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 28,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7578253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WingedLadyColette/pseuds/WingedLadyColette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sakura Haruno is given the mission of protecting Asura and Indra's reincarnations; Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha. AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Away

Sakura pulls the heavy bundles of clothes around herself tightly, to block out the chill of the air around her. She watches as Hinata tries, once again, to speak to Naruto, but as usual, he is surrounded by people and the lilac eyed young woman is just too timid to try and speak out against the horde of people. It's only now that Naruto is a big hero that people love and admire him. That they feel like they can now openly show affection to him. The person they had once called a monster and a demon.

Now they are all over him in a good way. It was so fake and made Sakura frown. She just couldn't watch. Naruto is adorably bashful, as Sakura expected him to be, but the only one who deeply and truly loved Naruto all of this time, whether he was the social outcast or the hero, was Hinata. Sakura felt bad that Naruto couldn't really see her. Not now, not surrounded by so many people.

Sakura lets out a long winded sigh, watching from a distance as Hinata slinks away into the darkness once more, her shoulder bowed in defeat. Sakura's heat goes out to the purple haired girl and hopes that she gets her chance soon and Naruto realizes that she's the real thing. But Sakura's going to try hard not to get involved with their love life, even though she wants to.

Sakura would love to slap Naruto upside the head and tell him to look at Hinata, but she doesn't feel it's her place. For a few reasons. The first being that this is the final test. This is the last test for her to pass in order to finally gain Naruto's affection. She has to swallow her fear, build up her backbone and just admit her feelings for him. Not in the heat of the moment or when he's about to die, like when they were fighting against Pein. There was too much going on, of course Naruto's short attention span wouldn't be able to process something like that.

So now she has to do it. She has to get Naruto's attention, look his right in the eye, and tell him she loved him. Then let the chips fall as they may. She can't let anything get in her way anymore. She's got to man up.

The other reason would be because Sakura didn't really have much control over her own love life. Once again, Sasuke has left the Hidden Leaf, this time promising to return once he found some kind of purpose in life. He gave her a quirky smile before poking her in the forehead and left. Again. While he was given leeway, allowed to leave by the Leaf, he was still just leaving.

Sakura offered to go with, so that they could finally be together. Sakura even promised herself that this would be it. She would try one more time to be with him, and if he wasn't ready to be with her, she would let him go. She would stop annoying him, as he had been telling her she was doing to him for years. She would let him go and move on.

And again, like every time before, he shot her down. He broke her heart once more, but this time he offered her a cute smile. Sakura was flush faced looking into his happy smile, thinking that this meant that when he was ready, he would return to her.

Sakura was a fool. The more that she thought about it, the more she began to realize what that smile meant.

He wasn't happy about her, but at the prospect of leaving. Not her, she's not pretentious enough to believe that it was all about her. But he was happy to be leaving the Leaf because it's obvious to him, and now her, that what he truly seeks in this world, isn't in the Hidden Leaf Village. If Sasuke ever did return to her, it was only because he couldn't find what he was looking for.

Sasuke has made it so completely and thoroughly clear to Sakura.

Since then, about two years, Sakura has been floating. She's been working, taking missions, hanging out with her friends and dating, a very minute bit of dating, but hasn't really found that person that can make her heart pound quite like Sasuke used to. Or, what she thought Sasuke's presence used to do to her heart. Sakura is beginning to wonder if she was ever really in love with Sasuke.

For so long, all Sakura wanted as a child was to be like all the other girls. She wanted to be recognized by them as one of them. Without Ino, Sakura never would have had to courage to finally watch the other girls with clear eyes. She finally saw what made a lot of them the same. They all loved the Uchiha boy. Sakura will admit that she found him cute, but she wouldn't say she loved him. Not until years later, when she finally got to know more about him and see him in all kinds of different lights.

When he was going to leave the Leaf the first time, Sakura did love him. Or maybe she fooled herself into believing that was true. Sakura didn't really know anymore, honestly.

Sakura no longer knew what she wanted or how she wanted to feel. The only thing she did know, was that her and Sasuke just weren't meant to be. Maybe they could have been together, had things somehow been different, but it is obvious now that it can't happen. At least, the way they are now.

Sakura leans against the side of one of the buildings, leaning her forehead against the hardwood. She closes her eyes tightly and letting out a long winded sigh. She really had no real direction in her life. She can't very well be giving out a lot of love advice in her situation. To be honest, Sakura isn't even sure that she's ever been in love before.

But maybe that's just a bit of theatrics on her part.

Sakura lets out a deep sigh, the cold hair having burned her lungs. She reaches up and runs her fingers through her short pink hair, looking down at her shoe imprints in the snow. Sakura steps back, away from the building, and back onto the near barren streets. She heads down the road, to home, letting her feet drag a bit.

Once Sakura makes it home, her parents are in the kitchen, her mom is complaining about something while her father is just humming in agreement every couple of moments. Sakura cast a half glance into the kitchen to see her mother pacing while her dad was sitting at the dinning room table, watching her, before Sakura headed up the stairs, down the hall and into her room. She closes the door softly behind herself before stripping down and into long fluffy pants and a big t-shirt. She falls onto her bed, face down, and closes her eyes.

Sakura pulls herself normally onto her bed, curling up on her side and closing her eyes. She's nineteen years old. She's going to have to move out soon. She's already got a location picked out and her room is pretty cleared up with a few boxes in the corner. She's ready to finally be on her own, ready for the privacy and to just be able to do what she'd like.

Sakura's life is becoming tense. In the sense that she's beginning to lose purpose. She still works at the hospital and there will always be people who need healing, but there is just something not right about the situation. Now that there is peace between the Five Great Nations, very little goes on with all of the smaller nations. No one wants to upset the mighty alliance. No one wants to be on the tail end of that.

So there is nothing that a medical shinobi like Sakura is really needed for anymore. Sure, there will always be missions and there will always be rogues, but something just doesn't add up anymore. Some things just don't have any more meaning.

The pink haired girl sits up slowly, looking over at her bedroom window. It's snowing again, the white specs falling to the world slowly. Sakura lays down again, this time with the ability to view outside the window.

Sakura watches the snowflakes fall until her eyes slip closed and she falls asleep.

 

Hinabi was kidnapped by some guy named Toneri. Sakura offered to go with Naruto, Shikamaru, Sai and Hinata to search for her. They fell through a lake that Hinata couldn't exactly see through because of some form of distortion. The lake wasn't actually made of water, Sai quickly alerted them, for it was impossible to get wet from it, but when they jumped in, they were immediately immersed into a genjutsu. A powerful one. Sakura was able to dispel the genjutsu cast on all of them when Toneri showed up with Hinabi's eyes, asking Hinata to wed him.

Sakura didn't get to see a lot of what went down between Toneri, Hinata and Naruto, because Sai, Shikamaru and herself had to fight off a huge fucking crab thing. The gatekeeper, she's come to learn. It guarded the passaged way to the moon. To what appeared to be a civilization just beneath the moon's surface. This place had everything. Buildings, running water and even a sun. Real or not, it was greatly impressive.

They all split up in search of clues as to Hinabi's whereabouts.

Sakura came across what looked to be a drain missing it's cover but there is a shrine with a statue of a man that looked... kind of like Hagoromo Otsutsuki in front of it. Somehow, Sakura didn't know how, but somehow she knew, in the back of her mind, that this was someone closely related to Hagoromo. Sakura tilts her head to the side, stepping closer to the statue to give it a better look.

There is just something about it that she can't take her eyes off of. Something just keeps compelling her to come closer.

Sakura takes another step closer to the statue. Only her foot didn't land on anything, just open air and before Sakura knew it, that little drain, about the size of her forearm, expands big enough to swallow her whole. Sakura's scream is covered up by darkness as Sakura descends into the abyss. Sakura claws at the air around her, trying to see through the blackness.

Sakura has no idea how long she fell or how far, but she must have hit her head somehow and was knocked out cold. Sakura had some kind of dream. She was standing before the statue in darkness. There was nothing but Sakura and the statue, but it was life sized this time. It floated in front of her and even though it was made of stone, there was something about it that just seemed so alive.

"Who are you?" Sakura asks, half expecting that she might be going crazy.

Hamura.

Sakura jolts, eyes widening in surprise. She looks around the blackness for a moment. It wasn't like a voice that spoke to her. But some kind of feeling that Sakura got in the pit of her stomach. Her eyes settle onto the statue once more.

"Hamura?" Sakura says slowly. "I don't know who that is."

I need you to look after my nephews.

Sakura's eyebrows pull together. "Nephews? Who's that?"

Asura and Indra.

Sakura's eyes widen. "Wait, so you're Hagoromo Otsutsuki's brother? Asura and Indra's uncle?" She shakes her head slowly, unable to believe that. So, then Toneri must be an Otsutsuki, being up on the moon. While Hagoromo created the moon to be his mother's prison, Hamura must be the jailor. It's all starting to make sense now.

Then, his words make sense in her mind.

"Wait, is something wrong with Naruto and Sasuke?" Sakura floats a bit closer to the statue.

Not those reincarnations. The ones that proceeded them.

Sakura's eyes flitter around the darkness for a moment. "Do you mean... the First Hokage and Madara Uchiha?" Her eyes land on the statue once again. "What do they have to do with anything?"

You are unique. You can be handled through time.

Sakura shakes her head. "I don't know what that means. And you didn't exactly answer my question."

All things connect in threads. Times, places, people, events. Everything is somehow connected one way or another. This is just another one of those points. You are malleable. You can bend with time.

Sakura frowns at that. "That doesn't make any sense. I don't know what you're asking of me."

Asura and Indra hold much power, in all forms they take. But there is something lost in all the timelines. Something that changes, but stays constant, one way or another.

"And that is?"

You have been, and always will be, at their side.

"Is this my destiny?" Sakura asks, voice stained. She didn't understand. "I'm suppose to do what? Go back in time? That's crazy! And if I'm suppose to be with them, one way or another, aren't I already there? And let's just say I believe in the multi-verse theory, aren't I already this Asura and Indra's... uh, whatever. In the form of Naruto and Sasuke. What about them?"

A new you will take your place. The essential part of your mission with them is over. You reunited Asura and Indra once more. They are closer now than they have ever been in any timeline before.

Sakura sighs. Of course they were closer together than ever before. That was just her luck. While she appreciated that they were getting along, she sort of wished that she could be invited into that circle of friendship, but as far as she's concerned, she's an outsider. Naruto is kind, always has been. His level of annoying-ness has decreased immensely as he's aged, but Sasuke couldn't see more through her if she was invisible.

"How in the world am I suppose to help Madara Uchiha and Lord First? Are you suggesting that I... what? Go back in time? What about Hinabi? She needs help."

Hinabi will be fine with my descendent. Both of them. Something has happened to the you in a different timeline.

"What's that?"

You were killed. Young.

Sakura's eyebrows raise. "Oh, okay..." A pause. "And who was I?"

Someone they once knew.

"Wouldn't that be weird that I would just reappear again?" Sakura asks incredulously. "Smart men like that would be extremely weary of meeting up with someone who is dead, now alive again."

They don't know you died. Just that you vanished. You are still you. Just a different timeline. A different life. All you hold bit of fundamental aspects the same. When and if the time comes, you will see that.

"What does that mean?" Sakura asks, eyebrows pulling together tightly.

Not now. Maybe not ever. Just protect my nephews, as you've always done. Thank you, and good luck.

"Wait!" Sakura calls, reaching out toward the statue as if begins to fade away. "Wait! I don't want to go! What about Naruto? What about Konoha? What about my life here?"

It will all be okay. Just follow your instincts. You are the only one who can save them, Sakura. You always have been. Good luck.

Everything fades into the blackness.

 

Sakura opens her eyes slowly, head pounding, body aching. Her vision is blurry but she knows she's in a room, a large and cold one, but there is dozens of candles all around the cold room, offering just a bit of warmth. Not enough to make a difference, but Sakura wasn't in her usual clothes. She was in a glittering, shining kimono with lots of beads and jewelry hanging off of her in one form or another. Even as she moves her head, her neck aching, she can hear things clanking around in her hair, intertwined with the strands.

She was hanging from the ceiling by a rope around her wrists, now those ached terribly, and had to be somewhere near the center of the room. As Sakura's vision cleared, she began to notice that there is some kind of alter built around her. Her feet don't even touch the ground.

Sakura does a quick survey of her injuries. Nothing serious. Just aches and pains from the strange way she's been held up, she's parched and a bit malnourished, but other than that, she's okay.

Sakura looks up at the knot tied around her wrists, spinning the joints around a bit trying to get the blood to flow back into them before using her arms to list her body weight closer to the knot and begins pulling her hands apart from one another, straining them against the rope. Hard. The rope rubs against her skin a bit, making the cold skin hotter.

Lack of blood flow to her arms makes it hard for her to muster any strength.

Sakura takes a few low, deep breaths, before pulling hard again, straining her muscles. She pushes her chakra to her arms, which is a lot harder since she can't really feel her arms, and uses it to enhance her strength. Thankfully, the rope yields and snaps, setting her free. Sakura hits the ground hard, her legs not strong enough to hold her up for a moment.

Sakura rolls onto her back and just lays there, letting the blood circulate back into her system and wake up her limbs, suffering through the prickling feeling until it is done. She rolls over onto her side, then stands up, blood rushing to her head, making her see spots. Sakura waits until those vanish before she surveys the room.

it's large and dark, there appears to be only one way in. A door on the far side of the room.

Sakura starts to walk toward it, only to stop. She spots a pile of cloth on the floor a few feet away. The top thing is a very familiar red.

The pink haired girl is relieved to change from the kimono, no matter how nice, had to go. There is no way she's going to be running around in a strange place, for some unknown reason, in a heavy ass kimono. If they were going to offer Sakura her clothes back, she wasn't going to say no. In fact, she'll thank them. Sakura rubs her forehead.

Her head is splitting and her memory is getting fuzzy with fever. "Shit," Sakura mumbles. She remembers going to the moon. She remembers the statue and the fall, but the dream is a bit hazy. She was told she had to protect Asura and Indra. So, namely Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju. And she was given the very distinct impression that she wasn't going home. Or, maybe she was told that by Hamura Otsutsuki.

Sakura rubs at her forehead more frantically, hurting the skin on her skull. "Shit," she mumbles again before heading over to her clothes, stripping down from the kimono and into her regular clothes. It's not as warm as the kimono but at least she'll be able to move around in it comfortably.

It wasn't just her clothes, either. It was everything. Her medical supplies, her weapons, even all of her scrolls. Everything she brought with her on her journey to go and save Hinabi. Thankfully, Sakura had no clue where they were going or how long they were going to be gone, so she was lucky enough to have packed very generously. Very generously.

Sakura rifles through her things, making sure that everything is still there before she heads to the door, pulling out a kunai and pressing her ear against it, straining her hearing, despite the headache, to see if there was anyone on the other side of the door.

Nothing.

Sakura opens the door slowly and steps out a dimly lit hallway, lined with only torches leading toward a stairway leading up a fifteen stair staircase to a door lined with light. There was something behind that door. Something providing a hell of a lot of light. The other way is about four feet before it's rocks. Like wherever she is, a great portion of it is buried beneath rock.

Something half crushed beneath the rocks catches Sakura's attention. She walks over to it. It looks like a half crushed body, but upon closer inspection; it's not a person. It's a puppet. It looks exactly like a human. No one Sakura's ever seen. It's just looks like a regular man, nothing all that unique or impressive about him, but when she touches his neck to feel for a pulse, it's made out of some strange material that appears as though it's meant to mimic flesh, both in the way it looks and sort of how it is touching it. Major exposure to this flesh and it'll be obvious that it's not real, but just a graze and it'll pass easy.

Sakura's eyebrows pull together, but she stands up. Her head hurts too much for her to be able to accurately sit there and analyze the situation right now. She'll have to come back once she gets her feet under her. From one of her scrolls, she pulls out a long, dark brown cloak and puts it on, blocking out most of the cold while containing the heat of her body. She heads for the only viable way, carefully ascending the stairs before pausing again to listen at the door.

Nothing.

Sakura cracks open the door and is immediately blinded by sunlight bouncing off of freshly fallen snow and into her eyes. Sakura gives herself a moment to adjust to the bright light, despite her splitting head, before she steps out a few feet before looking around and seeing that wherever she was, she was underground. Sakura looks around for a moment, surveying the area again.

She was in a forest. It's mostly barren with hardly any leaves remaining on a few trees and none on all the others. It's cold and windy and she can see through the bare trees for a good while. She has to be somewhere in the Land of Fire, though. She would recognize these trees anywhere.

Sakura isn't all that sure where to go or what to do, but she does know that she has to get somewhere warm, get some medicine in her, or make it herself, and spend some time really thinking about what is going on.

If she can't go home - which it's sounding like that is ultimately going to be the case - then she is going have to really think about her life and what she is going to do.

In some ways, Sakura can't help but think that this is all her fault. If she had done something different or if she worked harder, maybe she wouldn't be here right now. Maybe she wouldn't be put into this scary, unknown situation. She would be out dicking around with Naruto and her friends trying to help save Hinabi, not wandering around in the cold. Lost. Confused.

For some reason, her mind goes back to that night. Back to the night she watched Hinata slink into the darkness after inadvertently being rejected by Naruto again, to when she snuck home and her mother was ranting about whatever - again, and all Sakura could think about is leaving. Her mind went back to that very moment where she was laying on her bed, staring out her window, feeling like she no longer belonged. Where she was out of place.

And that moment settles in her mind, mocking her.

She wanted to go somewhere where she was needed, right? Well, she got what she wanted.

She just never expected that where she was needed was with the First Hokage and Madara-fucking-Uchiha. She had no idea how she was suppose to help either of them. She didn't even really know what was wrong. Well, she knew what would be wrong, but if she was suppose to somehow stop him, then that means he hasn't done anything yet.

Kami, Sakura's head is hurting too badly to be able to deal with this. Later, she'll have to think more about it later. For now, shelter and medicine.

Lost, confused, and suddenly more lonely than she's ever felt in her entire life, Sakura picks a direction and starts walking.


	2. Skipper

Sakura managed to stop, fish a bit and get some food into her, which did help to start making her feel better, but not enough to actually break the fever she had. Sakura didn't mind, though. She was a bit more alert now than she was before. She just had to keep moving until she came across a village that she could stay at for a few nights until she was all better. Thankfully she still had all of her money and everything that she left Konoha with, what feels like forever ago.

Once night fell, Sakura had to climb up a tree and sleep there tonight. While laying there under the starry night, Sakura had to wonder if Hinata, Naruto, Sai and Shikamaru managed to find Toneri and save Hinabi and the planet. God, Sakura hoped that everyone would be alright. If Sakura recalled correctly through her fever indused haze, Hamura sounded certain that they would be okay. That they would save Hinabi.

He also basically said that they would no longer need her anymore, which was honestly an asshole thing to say but the pitiful side of Sakura wallowed in it. If the man who basically made your way of life possible's little brother basically said no one there needed her any more, what the hell is she suppose to do with that? She couldn't very well stay, could she?

In some ways, she's angry that she was yanked out of her life and brought here, to the past - she hasn't figured out how far back yet, but she's sure it's pretty far - without her getting a say in it at all. But if Sakura stayed behind, yet she would be with her friends and family, but then what? Would she be feeling worthless and useless for the rest of her life? That's a good way to bring on crippling depression without delay.

Sakura anxiously runs her hands through her hair, not caring that she's messing it up. She just can't seem to get her bearings. Sakura adjusts a bit, pieces of bark from the tree trunk press into her back uncomfortably, but she ignores it. Sakura pulls out her water canteen and takes a few sips of the cool water, hoping that it'll help lower her fever a bit. It doesn't really, but it also makes her feel a bit better. Sakura rolls her shoulders back before sinking a bit where she sits on the uncomfortable tree branch.

Sakura looks up at the sky, seeing the glittering stars through the naked trees. As night fully envelopes this part of the world, the temperature is dropping, and while it feels good on her skin, she knows it's not doing anything wonderful for her health but she really can't choose one way or the other at the moment. She is just going to have to deal for now and hope she doesn't get sicker before she finds a village.

Sakura pulls the large white cloak she always has on her person, around herself tighter, hoping it'll block out some of the cold. The tip of her nose and ears are starting to hurt from the cold. Sakura grabs the white hood and brings it up over her head to try and block the cold out a bit more but lets out a little cough, betraying herself. She brings her legs up to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs and lays her head down on her knees, blocking out the chill completely and enveloping her in warmth.

Sakura's eyes slip closed and she falls asleep almost immediately.

 

Sakura felt them before she was even fully conscious. Something was right on top of her when her instincts kicked in and Sakura threw herself to the side and off the tree branch, letting the cold air rushing past her face force her into awareness before reaching out and grabbing onto the branch closest to her and flying to the one across from it to another tree.

She spins around and looks up at the tree where she was sleeping just moments ago to see a figure standing right were she was. It was an exact copy of the man Sakura saw before, at that strange half underground place she was at when she woke up in this time.

The man turns to look over at Sakura, the movement is slow and smooth, and very humanlike but Sakura knew, somehow, that this man was just like the man before him. He was not human. He was some kind of puppet being controlled by someone else. He looked very human but that was it. This understanding was furthered when ten men who looked exactly like him land on the three branches around him. So, either the family resemblance is astonishing, or they are all puppets. Just like the puppets Naruto and Hinata said attacked them in Konoha.

Except this wasn't Toneri.

"Who are you?" Sakura asks, standing up slowly, keeping her back ramrod straight. She keeps her eyes shifting from one puppet to the next, her muscles tense and ready for her to start moving the moment any of them turn threatening.

None of them respond. They just stand there, staring down at her.

Sakura shifts slightly, her heart pounding in her chest as adrenaline courses through her system. Her fingers twitch at her sides but she forces herself to keep her breathing even.

"Who are you?" Sakura asks again.

The moment the words leave her lips, all of the puppets lunge at her. Sakura jumps back, dodging them. She quickly turns around mid-flight and starts running. She's in no position to be fighting right now. Sakura didn't know where she was. She could be anywhere in the country. She's not even certain that she's in the Land of Fire. She hasn't come across any sort of landmark that would alert her to where she was. Now she's in need of help and has no idea where a nearby village is.

"Fuck," Sakura hisses under her breath. She leaps to the side, dodging one of the puppets punching the tree branch she was just one. She spins around, mid air, and lands a kick on the side of it's head and it goes flying off in the forest in the opposite direction, smashing through trees. Sakura keeps moving, not wanting to wait around for more to catch up with her.

Sakura had to duck and dodge through the forest, fighting off any and all puppets that get too close. Sakura could hear the sounds of fighting ahead of her. It was early morning, the sky a nasty gray with clouds so thick, it was hard for the sun to even pierce through them. Sakura knew she should probably try and avoid what sounded like another conflicted ahead of her, so she turned slightly to try and head parallel to it, and ultimately pass it, hoping that's the sign of a village being nearby, but one of the puppets appear next to her, aiming a kick to her side so hard to went flying.

Sakura's back connected with the thick trunk of a tree a few yards away, knocking the wind out of her. Sakura landed on her knees in the snow, wheezing for air for a moment, the cold air burning her lungs.

Sakura rubs her side for a moment before standing up slowly. The puppets drop down around her, jerking around unnaturally. Sakura tilts her head slightly. She takes a deep breath, sends chakra to her right hand, balls it up into a fist and hits the ground, watching the ground shriek and yield around her, splintering into pieces and separating the puppets.

The pink haired battle medic skirts around the tree and runs directly away, pushing her legs to go as fast as they can. Her vision starts blurring as her lungs burn from the exertion. She sees a break in the trees that leads to a wide open field. There is fresh scorch marks on the ground, blackening the grass, but there is no one around, which is good. Sakura runs to the middle of the field, giving herself a moment to collect her breath and slow down her frantically beating heart to devise a plan of action.

She obviously can't outrun them, not in the state that she's in. But they haven't shown an overly impressive skill set. They obviously know taijutsu, but that's all they've shown. They aren't too fast and so far none of them have landed a blow on her yet, despite her weakened state, so something tells her that this shouldn't be too bad, it's just numbers. That, they have on her.

Kami, how is Sakura suppose to "protect" Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju when she can't even look after herself? This was a load of bullshit.

The puppets slink out of the woods, twitching and shaking oddly, before they start charging. Sakura's mind clears up as she lets out a roar of rage and moves to intercept, her anger helping clear her mind a bit. Just enough to focus on the battle.

Sakura's hands curl into fists before she reaches them. Sakura dances around the eleven combatants. They aren't durable like regular humans either. It reminds Sakura of her battle with Sasori. She spins around between the eleven puppets. Punch, kick, dodge, swipe, back step, jump, chakra enhanced fist to the ground. It didn't take long for Sakura to begin taking down her opponents, there was something odd about it.

This would be the second time, really, that she's fought against puppets. These were definitely different from the wooden puppets that Sasori and Kankuro use, but they were definitely not real people. They didn't bleed or react in pain when hit, but after enough damage is dealt, they fall to the floor and stop moving. But unlike Sasori and Kankuro, there was no chakra strings. They weren't made of wood but some kind of rubber, jello-like substance that helped it somewhat mimic a human, but not perfectly. Their facial expressions didn't even change. Without chakra strings, Sakura had no idea where the puppeteer was.

Right now, she doesn't care. She just has to stop these puppets and get out of here.

One of the puppets hands crackles with lightning dancing around his hand and he reaches out and grabs Sakura's wrist, shocking her. Sakura lets out a scream of shock and pain, pulling her other fist back and punches it square in the face, sending it flying off into the distance, it hits the ground with a big explosion.

"That hurt," Sakura snarls, bringing her leg up and sending it flying backward to knock another puppet away. She pulls out a bomb tag, put it onto the back of another puppet before tossing it into a gathering of five others. They all explode. Sakura turns toward the last two, grabbing one by the arm, spinning around and hitting the second one with the first before throwing the first to the ground, bringing her leg straight up and bringing it down on his gut.

The area falls silent and Sakura lets out an angry growl. Sakura reaches up and pulls her hood back up. It had fallen down sometime near the end of her bout. She pauses a moment, rolling her shoulders back, an angry sneer on her face before she spares all of the puppets one last look to make sure they aren't going to be getting back up again anytime soon. She turns away from the carnage. "Son of a... bitch..." Sakura mutters, staring at the small group that has gathered to watch. Sakura freezes.

For a single, crazy moment, Sakura wondered if she didn't move, she would just disappear into the crowd and be able to slip away. But she knew that was completely insane. There is no way that was a possibility. Sakura wanted to hit herself. She couldn't believe that she could get such an audience, there had to be like six people over there, and she didn't even notice.

Sakura really had to be out of it.

They were pretty far away, this was a huge open field, and they were partially hidden beneath the trees so Sakura couldn't really see them, but she could tell that there was an awkward distance between them.

Sakura didn't have the strength to fight them too, so Sakura turns the opposite way, and runs. As fast and as hard as she can.

 

It's was a nice cool morning and a young girl was walking toward the water, the buckets she held bump against her shins. Her clothes were old and worn and a dark brown color to hide the stains and age but her hair was a vibrant pink color and her eyes a pretty green. She was happy despite her dirty skin, clothes and feet, from the lack of shoes. She was just naturally happy.

She lifts them to stop them from bruising her legs. She hums to herself as she gets to the river, dipping the first bucket into the water, filling it up. She lays it down next to her before dipping the other in. Once that one is full she pulls it out and lays it on her other side, reaching into the bucket, pulling out the fish that she accidently caught and threw it out. She feels like some one is staring at her.

The girl slowly turns sharply to see two boys staring at her, eyes wide. They are both poised in such a way that it looks like they were throwing something into the water, but completely frozen when the little pink haired girl walked out of the tree line almost as if they were hoping that she wouldn't see them if they didn't move in the slightest.

But now she's staring at them, green eyes blown wide as she stares at the two boys. Both of which a few years older than her. Probably eleven or twelve. One had short brown hair cut almost in a bowl shape with large brown eyes while the other had wild messy black hair and black eyes. The two boys stare at her as she stares back at them, no one saying anything for a moment.

Finally, the girl says, slowly, "Hello...?"

The brown haired boy is the first to speak. "Hi."

Then the black haired boy. "...hi..."

The girl looks around for a moment, wondering if there was anyone else around, but she didn't see anyone. They were just staring at her. "Um," the girl says slowly, turning toward them. "What are you guys doing?"

"Nothing," the black haired boy says hastily.

The brown haired boy looks at the thing in his hand - a rock, it looks like - before swiftly hiding it behind his back, offering a sheepish smile. He gave the black haired boy a little shrug before holding up the rock for the pink haired girl can see it better. "We are skipping rocks," the brown haired boy says. A pause, then, "Do you want to play too?"

The girl tilts her head. "Is that okay?" Her eyes flicker over to the black haired boy, who shrugs, looking away.

The brown haired boy offers a jubilant smile. "Sure! Come on over!"

The girl walks over to them. "How do you do it?"

So the boys show her. The brown haired boy is definitely better than the black haired boy, but they seem to be having a lot of fun. Once the pink haired girl finally picked up how to actually do it, she too began to have fun. The brown haired boy was friendly right away, but the black haired boy was a little standoffish, staring at her as if she was a wild animal getting ready to strike. But after about an hour, he began to loosen up, seeing as she was no threat to them.

"I'm Hashirama," the brown haired boy says, looking over at the pink haired girl, offering a huge grin.

"Madara," the black haired boy says.

"Sakura," the pink haired girl says, giving them a little wave. She throws another rock, it skips once before sinking into the water. She lets out a sigh. "I suck at this."

Hashirama laughs. "Yeah, but now we found someone that Madara can beat!" Sakura and Madara both glare at Hashirama, making him swallow his laughter and look bashful. "Um, sorry."

"How about I just skip you, huh?" Madara snaps.

Hashirama adopts a silly look on his face, hunching over with his back toward Madara. "I just hope I make it to the other side..." He runs the pad of his pointer finger over a rock right in front of him.

"What was that?" Madara snaps, hands curling into fists.

"Nothing!" Hashirama says, jumping up and waving his arms around in surrender to the black haired boy. He smiles at the slightly taller boy sheepishly. Madara settles down right after that, but the angry look remains for a few moments longer to get his point across.

Sakura rolls her eyes. "I think I'll dub you two Forest Weirdos."

"We aren't freaks!" Madara says, turning to Sakura now.

"Seriously!" Hashirama huffs, then tilts his head. "And what's wrong with the forest?"

"Nothing," Sakura says simply, shrugging two thin shoulders. "I'm not saying their is. I just think you two are weirdos."

Madara huffs while Hashirama wilts again. "Awww," Hashirama whines. "Why don't we call ourselves something? You know, something cool? Like... like," He points to himself, "Hop," then to Sakura, "Skip," and finally Madara, "And Jump!"

"That's stupid," Madara says, flatly.

"No, it's not," Hashirama pouts.

Madara rolls his eyes. "Where did that even come from, anyway?"

"Skipping rocks!" Hashirama says proudly. Madara sends him a droll look.

"Anyway," Sakura says, looking up at the sky, easily ignoring the slightly older boy, "I should probably be going home now! Will you guys be coming back?"

Hashirama nods. "Definitely! Come again in two days! Same time!"

"Not same time," Madara says, glaring at him. He looks at Sakura. "Show up an hour earlier than today, that's usually when we meet up." Then back to Hashirama, "She was late today, baka."

Hashirama laughs. "Oops, yeah! What Madara said."

Sakura nods, smiling. "Great! Well, by guys!" Sakura waves at them before running over to her buckets, lifting them, swaying a bit from the weight, before heading on back home.

"Bye!" Hashirama and Madara call before both of them disappear into the forests.

 

Sakura had found a deep underground cave to sleep in for a few nights. It was warm and it gave Sakura the opportunity to gather what little herbs she could and fresh water to begin healing herself. The cave was deep, and for the most part uninhabited, and with many routes in. It was odd and Sakura had to wonder if it was man made, though it was not something she had ever seen before. She still had yet to come across a civilization of any sort, and at this point Sakura is beginning to doubt whether or not she was sent back to the time of her village's founding.

While the puppets were admittedly odd, Sakura has yet to not only run into a village, but run into anyone! Either the world wasn't nearly as populated during her village's founding, or Sakura was at the ass end of nowhere because she can't seem to find anyone.

Well, other than whomever was watching her almost a week ago fighting off the puppets. So at least Sakura's not in the middle of the ice age or anything, she has just been unlucky enough to not be able to find people just yet.

The way the cave was set up is there is two separate entrances that lead in a big half circle from one side to the other. The cave is massive and it would be a good twenty minute run to go from one entrance to the other on the outside, and it's even longer on the inside. Going toward the middle of the cave, toward the actual curve of the cave, there is a huge stone piece jutting out that overlooks the two ways in. There is writings all over the walls that make no sense to Sakura and is safe to assume no one has been to this cave in a long time. Sakura has been sure to curl up in a corner away from stalactites hovering from the cave ceiling.

Sakura is finally starting to feel better after a few days of resting when she hears the soft sound of feet scuffing against the rock floor. Sakura falls to her belly, thankful she hasn't built up a fire yet, seeing as it's the afternoon, but while Sakura is feeling a hell of a lot better than before, she's not sure she should be fighting too much in her condition.

Sakura falls flat onto her belly, glad she has been cloaking her chakra for days now to hide from predators, and crawls over to the ledge, carefully. She peaks over the side to see figures approaching from both sides.

"I'm telling you, brother, it lead here," a man's voice says as a group of five round the corner to Sakura's left. There is enough light in the cave for Sakura to immediately recognize the Uchiha blue. They were the same shade as Sasuke's shirt back when he was young. All five of them were wearing the same blue shirt and pants with pitch black hair. Uchiha.

The two in the front, one unmistakably Madara Uchiha, and the other a boy that looked - and Sakura is going to swear this up and down - just like Sasuke are leading the group. It wasn't Madara who spoke, he was looking over at the Sasuke look-a-like.

"Oh?" Madara says flatly.

"I know it," the Sasuke look-a-like says, gesturing in front of them right as those coming from the other side, round the corner.

Sakura pales completely when Hashirama and Tobirama, leading four other Senju round the corner and come to a stop, just like the Uchiha. Sakura could have died at the annoyed look on Madara's face. It was so completely different than what she expected. Hashirama on the other hand...

"Madara!" Hashirama says, throwing his arms out wide, almost whacking Tobirama in the face. The man steps back with a glare directed toward his older brother, but he says nothing.

Madara gives him a droll look. "Oh look, Izuna, a cave full of dead Senju, and it's not even my birthday."

Hashirama wilts like a flower. "Aw, why do you have to say that?"

The Sasuke look-a-like frowns, looking up at Madara. "This wasn't who I was talking about, Madara." Then to the Senju, "What are you doing here, Senju?" He takes a threatening step forward but no one looks threatened in the slightest.

"None of your business," Tobirama snarls at the same time Hashirama says, "Looking for Sakura."

Sakura jumps in surprise. Tobirama looks over at Hashirama with the most annoyed look Sakura has ever seen on the normally composed Second Hokage's face. Madara blinks slowly at his one time childhood friend while the Sasuke look-a-like's shoulders drop and his look is almost as wonderful as Tobirama's. What an odd bunch of people.

This is just so weird. They really did know her name. It was just a surreal experience to hear such powerful people like them talking about her. There wasn't a lot said, but when the First Hokage said that he was looking for Sakura held a lot of weight. Sakura isn't so sure what she thinks about this. They must have tracked her here and... what? Was the Uchiha looking for her too?

If Sakura recalled correctly, they were childhood friends. From the dream she had, this must have been Hamura's way of kind of fitting her into the role rather than just thrusting it upon her. Er, well, more than he already did. Sakura kind of appreciated the background knowledge. It almost made this feel less like one big old lie to her future Kage and his one-time best friend.

"You saw Sakura too," Madara says, pulling Sakura from her thoughts.

Hashirama's smile is sad. "Yes, brother, I did. After what happened... I thought for sure..." His brown eyes lower. Shame colors Madara's face and he turns away for a moment. Sakura tilts her head to the side, wondering what they could be referring to. Could it have been her "death"? Hamura did say that the Sakura of this time died, but he didn't specify as to how exactly. Sakura wonders what that could have been.

Tobirama looks at his brother for a moment before he jerks and twists toward her, looking up and spotting her. His red eyes narrow. "Hey!" Everyone follows his line of sight to Sakura's darkened out figure. "Come out now!"

Sakura lets out a slow, drawn out breath, stealing herself. She knew she was going to have to face them sooner or later, she just kind of wished she would know more about their relationship before then, but it looks as though the opportunity has basically been thrust upon her. Sakura stands up, looking down at the men below her, all reaching for their weapons other than Madara and Hashirama, stepping off the rock and dropping the twenty feet until she's at the space between the two sides.

Sakura straightens up, glad that she has a moment to hide behind the hood of her cloak, not sure her face will be as composed as she would have liked. Shit, she wished she had more time to prepare. She takes a deep breath before raising her head, looking between the two clan leaders. "Hop, Jump, how's it going?" She asks, placing a hand onto her hip.

Madara's and Hashirama's eyes widen. Something told Sakura right away that that was something that was only shared between the three of them.

"Sakura..." Madara says softly, his dark eyes wide with something deep and desperate lurking beneath those black depths.

"Skipper," Hashirama says, stepping forward and wrapping his arms around her, hugging her tightly. Now that is weird. Sakura hesitates a moment, before wrapping her arms around him too, figuring this was something that a friend would do. Sakura had to admit, it was odd how right that felt. Hugging Hashirama was as easy as hugging Naruto. It was just like hugging Naruto.

Tobirama, the Senju, the Sasuke look-a-like and the Uchiha all lower their weapons slowly, not sure how to react.

Hashirama pulls away, pauses a moment before reaching up and pulling her hood down. Hashirama steps back for a moment so that he and Madara can just stare at her. They haven't seen each other in many years. If Sakura looked like she did when she was eight or nine in this time that she did in her time, then she must look a lot different now. She's a full grown woman now. Nineteen years old.

"Skipper," Hashirama says, reaching out to touch her again but stops himself. "Skipper, are you okay? You're so pale..."

"I'm getting over a cold," Sakura says, shaking her head. "I'm fine. What are you guys doing here?" Well, obviously they were looking for her, but she wanted them to tell her.

"Tobirama saw you," Hashirama says, brown eyes wide. "He saw you fighting strange men. Skipper, are you okay?" It was such an odd nickname, but somehow very endearing.

Sakura nods. "Yes, I'm fine." Sakura glances over at Madara, who has yet to take his eyes off of her. "Hello..."

Madara swallows, blinking rapidly. "Hello..." A pause, he looks around for a moment, before looking back at her. "Are you okay..?"

Sakura nods again. "Yes, I'm fine. What are you guys doing here? Did you need something from me?"

Hashirama's eyebrows pull together tightly. "What do you mean by that, Sakura? We thought you were dead! We haven't seen you for years! What do you mean; why are we here?" He almost looks mad at that.

Sakura shrinks a bit, not expecting that. "I'm sorry. I... I don't know what to say. I... had some things going on..." Sakura says slowly, honestly not sure what to say to that. She didn't know what happened so she didn't know how to kind of dance around it. Or at least make up some kind of justification as to why she hasn't gone back to see them in so long.

Hashirama looks sad now, the anger melting away. "Was this because of Madara and I? Because we were fighting?"

Taking the nugget of information like a lifeline, Sakura nods. "That's part of it. But I don't really want to talk about it. I'm sorry if I'm encroughing on either of your lands, I'm just trying to heal up, and then I'll go," Sakura says glancing over at Madara.

"What?" Madara says, eyes widening.

"No, it's nothing like that," Hashirama says, shaking his head. "We haven't seen you in years, and you're sick! Please, let me take a look at you."

Sakura offers a little smile. "It's a cold, my lord. I'm fine. Trust me."

Hashirama frowns. "Hashirama."

"Pardon?" Sakura raises an eyebrow.

"Call me Hashirama."

Sakura blinks a few times rapidly. "What? Oh, um, Hashirama-sama."

"No," Hashirama says, shaking his head. "Just Hashirama."

Sakura looks hesitates. "I..."

"Please," Hashirama says. "You are my friend. Don't call me that."

That didn't feel right, it felt like a lie, but Sakura nods slowly. This is one big lie. Sakura didn't think about it when she was brought back here, but she's thinking about it now, standing before two legendary warriors, the one time leaders of her village. She was going to lie to them, right to their faces, and pretend to be their childhood friend.

What kind of shit person does that? Apparently, Sakura Haruno.


	3. Manmaru Seto

Sakura lets out a long-winded sigh. She runs her hand through her short pink locks. She lets her eyes slip close and turns away from the men in front of her, feeling like a piece of shit. Why is she here? Why is she doing this? Sakura has no acting skills. How in the world was she going to do this? Did the all seeing Hamura see that she would somehow be able to make it through this?

Sakura didn't know what to do. Was she suppose to end their war? Was she suppose to help them settle their differences? Was she suppose to keep the peace after the war was over? Hamura told her that she needed to help the First Hokage and Madara, or, save them? But she didn't know in what context. Where they in danger? As in, the people attacking her, were they going to go after them too?

And on that same note; who the hell were these people? What did they want? Sakura literally had nothing! Moreso now than before. Now all she has is what is on her person. That's it! Was this some kind of consequence for going back in time? As in, now she needs someone to be her arch enemy or something? Sakura's dealt with too many of those - not so much her, but all of her friends, especially Naruto - and she was just done with that whole thing.

Sakura was nineteen years old and she was way too old for that shit now. At this point in Sakura's life, she's not so sure anything can surprise her now. She's pretty much seen it all. Or, at least, she's seen enough to not be really surprised by the strange and unusual things this time would try and throw at her. Sakura fought a Goddess and the Ten Tails, for Kami's sake!

And Sakura isn't a saint. She's done a lot of bad things in her life - although she's sure her bad pales in comparison to some - she's still done things that she regrets, but Sakura can't imagine what she could have done wrong that would put her into this position. She was basically told by the Sage of Six Path's brother that she was no longer needed back home. That she had nothing more to offer them.

Now that was a real punch in the gut. Seriously.

Sakura couldn't pretend to be their friend. She had that single memory to go off of, and it was of their first meeting. That was practically nothing! She didn't even have her life together. She had no idea how she was somehow going to help the First Hokage and Madara Uchiha out when she had no idea how she was going to get over this blasted cold that just won't go away. She was going to be of no use to her village's founders.

Not as she is.

"What do you want from me?" Sakura asks sadly, frowning. She can't even bring herself to look up at them. She was ashamed. Ashamed of herself. Her life. The lie she has to tell. The lie she is forced to tell. And the life she now has to live. Sakura wasn't just going to ruin her own life because of her ignorance of this era's Sakura - which the thought alone is astounding to think about? Another Sakura? - but also everyone else who's lives this Sakura has somehow, one way or another, come into contact with.

That includes the founders of her village. No matter what she might think about Madara's actions in her time, she does still owe him and the First Hokage for making her own the wonderful place she knows and loves.

Naruto, after the war was over, took the time to really explain what he learned from Sasuke about the relationship that Madara and Hashirama shared. The story that Hashirama told about the founding of their village. Naruto was able to sympathize to a degree how much Madara loved Konoha and how he wanted to make sure that everyone in it was safe and sound. He wanted Konoha to be supreme in power because he believed in the foundation in which the village was built upon. He believed in it.

Sakura too.

She's not sure she's exactly the right person to have helping form the structure of the village. She's not even sure how to structure her own life let alone help the founders build one for an entire village! Sakura knew what the village would one day become, but she wasn't sure if she would be the right one to help put the circumstances in place that would make her village a reality.

Sakura feels it's safe to assume that she is no longer in her timeline. She had absolutely no place in her own past, but to a degree, Sakura being here was already changing the timeline as she knew it.

"We don't want anything," Hashirama says softly. "Skipper, it's been almost seven years since I last saw you. I had no idea what happened to you. I was worried sick. Your village was destroyed. I thought..." Sakura tucks that nugget of information into the back of her mind for later. Her village was destroyed.

Madara looks away, closing his eyes for a moment before looking down at Sakura. "What happened?"

"I don't know what to say to you," Sakura says, half turning away. "Now isn't the time for any of this. My life doesn't have even the slightest bit of order right now. I can't do anything for either of you."

"We don't want anything," Madara and Hashirama say together, sparing a moment to share a look. Madara drags his dark eyes over to Sakura and asks, "What happened?"

Sakura shakes her head. "I don't know what to say. I'm having some... issues with remembering the last few years..." Sakura says slowly.

"What does that mean?" Hashirama asks, eyebrows pulled together. "Did something happen?"

"Those guys, the one that the Sec..." Sakura hesitates, glancing over at Tobirama, barely catching her slip up. "...Senju heir saw me fighting, I think they did something to me. I... woke up in a strange place a week ago and am having trouble remembering much of my life." The lie came a little too easily for her. She knew that being a ninja meant being a master at the art of deception, but Sakura found that she was never all that good at lying.

Tobirama's narrow red eyes hone in on her face, showing he caught the verbal slip up and just like the nugget of information about her past went into her vault, that went into his.

Now that is a scary ass thought. Sakura was a smart young woman, but she is nowhere near ready to face the mental prowess of the Second Hokage. She had to be very careful about what she said and did around the man. That is going to be a really tough and hard one to pull off. She has to be sure not to back herself into a corner. Because she sure as hell can't tell the truth.

Not the whole truth, that is. Maybe bits of it could happen.

"What?" Madara asks flatly. "Someone did something to you?" Hashirama glances over at him, eyebrows pulling together even more, before looking over at Sakura.

"Let me take a look at you," Hashirama says, stepping closer. Sakura shakes her head, closing her eyes.

"I'm okay. I'm just getting over a cold, at this point," Sakura says.

"How do you know?" Hashirama asks, shaking his head. "It could be something much worse. Please, let me help you."

Sakura lets out a little huff. "I can't, Lord... uh, Hashirama..." Man that's weird to say. "I can't pick sides. Not between the two of you. Besides, I am a medical shinobi, I know how my body works. I'm okay."

Hashirama doesn't appear as though he believes that - whether that is that Sakura is a medical shinobi or if she is okay - but he just lets his shoulders slump and offer her a sad, worried look that could put the one that Naruto used to give her to shame. This man was like a kicked puppy.

After a moment of baited silence, Hashirama says, "Can you at least let us get you out of the cold?"

"I'm fine," Sakura says, shaking her head. "I'm only staying here until I get better. Then I'll move on."

"And go where?" Madara asks.

Sakura shrugs a shoulder, looking around at everything but the people in front of her. She didn't know what to say to that. She really had no plan. She didn't know what to say to them right now. She didn't know what to do about this entire thing. She knew she had to somehow stay with Hashirama and Madara, but right now wasn't the time. They had to settle this war before she could really do anything about that. She didn't know how to help them other than letting the war end as it was meant to and picking up the slack after that.

She wanted it to end then and there, but she had no business there. She may be their childhood friend, but being childhood friends didn't stop the war in the first place. Sakura doesn't know what else to do. She has no leverage with any of the clans, and to be honest, she doesn't have her own head on straight. She still needs to sit down and really think about what she's going to do next before she digs herself into a corner and can't find a way out again.

"You don't remember things?" Hashirama asks instead, seeing that Sakura didn't have an answer to Madara's question. "Like what?"

"Pretty much everything," Sakura says slowly, dragging her eyes over to the First Hokage. "I have little fragments of memories. My training and when we first met as children. Nothing else. I know about the war between the two of you but that's it. I don't remember anything else."

Madara's dark eyes widen. "Nothing? You don't remember anything? Not even..." he hesitates, then looks away, jaw working.

Hashirama glances at him for a moment before looking back at Sakura. "How can that be? What happened to you?"

Sakura shakes her head. "I don't know. Listen, it's not your problem, okay? I'll get it figured out. You two should just figure out your deal." She gestures between the two of them.

Hashirama and Madara both looked a little pained by that, spare a look at one another for a moment, staring into the eyes of the other man. It seemed like the first time in a long time - perhaps too long - that they have really looked into the other's eyes and acknowledged the friendship that once existed between them. Sakura had to wonder how long it's been since things have been calm enough around them so that they could look at one another, not as enemies - and unfortunately not as friends - but as people.

There was an undeniable connection between the two of them. Whatever spark that was between them at childhood may have dimmed over the years of fighting, but in this moment, it flared powerfully. All of the Uchiha and Senju shift in the room, as if they somehow felt the change in their leaders' demeanors toward one another as if it was a physical thing. They didn't look at one another as if they have never seen the person across from them a day in their life.

Sakura was kind of mesmerized by how sudden the shift happened between the two sides. But as quick as it happened, it was gone, as Hashirama and Madara turned away from one another and toward Sakura.

"We... don't have a problem," Hashirama says delicately. His face showed that not even he believed those words. He blinks a few times quickly.

His words lit a fire in Sakura's belly, and she snaps. "Don't you dare say that!" Her voice echoes in the silence of the cave. Hashirama looks up at her, brown eyes wide. "Don't you dare say you have no problem when you go out to battle every day to kill your best friend's family! How can that be anything but a very serious problem?"

Hashirama practically shrinks in front of Sakura's very eyes.

"I may not remember much, but I can't believe that you don't see what's absolutely wrong with this! You are grown ass men fighting and killing one another. Do you even know what you are fighting for? Why you are fighting each other? Is it about conquest? Pride? Protecting your people? Is it because the other clan is filled with savaged who pillage and rape to their hearts desire? Because they are the scum of the earth and deserve to be wiped out completely? Huh? Which is it? I want to understand!" Sakura looks between the two clan leaders.

Hashirama and Madara bow their heads, neither knowing what to say, and Sakura realized in that moment why she was there.

"You've been fighting one another for so long that you don't even remember why you are fighting, or if it's even worth it anymore," Sakura says slowly, green eyes widening. "Sweet Kami," Sakura says, shaking her head. "What in the world are you thinking? Why the hell are you concerned over me when you should be worried about yourselves! You are best friends! Don't try and tell me that's not true! I just saw it happen! You're best friends and you allowing this death and carnage to continue! Forget me, worry about yourselves and each other!"

Sakura shakes her head again, unable to believe the people in front of her. They are fighting in a horrible, vicious war against one another and none of them seem to really know why that they are fighting. That's completely insane! If they had said that they were fighting for honor or some other bullshit like that, Sakura would probably smack the shit out of them, but at least she would believe it, but no one said anything. As soon as the words left her mouth, all of the men in the room looked around as if suddenly realizing that themselves.

Holy shit!

"I'll be okay," Sakura says, letting out a sigh. "I think you two should really take some time to sit down and talk with your elders, or other people that you trust and really try and figure out what you are willing to continue living with."

"Skipper..." Hashirama says softly.

Feeling absolutely repulsed, Sakura turns away completely. "Please... go away." Sakura reaches up and pulls her hood back over her head, feeling completely disillusioned. "I... I can't look at any of you right now. I'm sick and I'm tired. I just want to be alone. Please just go away."

Sakura stood there, unmoving, until she finally heard footsteps start retreating from the other sides of the cave. Once they were all gone, Sakura sank to the ground, lowering her forehead to her knees, feeling weak and tired.

It was one thing to hear the cliffnotes about how they battled one another for a long time despite being childhood friends, and another thing to see it in person. They had no idea what they were fighting for. Their love for one another somehow wasn't strong enough to stop the fighting on principal. Their love for their families wasn't enough to stop just for their sake.

It wasn't just something one of them could do. They both had to decide to stop the fighting. And that just wasn't happening.

Something occurred to Sakura now that she hadn't thought about until that very moment. Konoha wasn't built upon love and friendship and unity for any and all who believe in the Will of Fire. It was built upon the bones of the men, women and children of the Uchiha and Senju clans.

Sakura was absolutely repulsed.

 

"Hey, Weirdos!" Young Sakura says, walking out into the opening to see Hashirama and Madara already arguing with one another.

"Hi," Madara says, giving her a side glance.

"Sakura," Hashirama says, turning to her as she gets close, "can you settle a disagreement for us?"

Sakura stops right next to them, shrugging her shoulders before crossing her arms over her chest and leaning on one hip. "Sure thing. What is it?"

Madara rolls his eyes, reaching up and folding his hands behind his head. Hashirama turns to her completely before explaining, "I think that it's important to be able to do a wide variety of things despite it not being practical to who you are as a person. Madara seems to believe that it's pointless to do things that don't benefit you in the end despite whatever enjoyment you may or may not get from it."

Madara glares at Hashirama. "Don't say it like that, dobe! I just said that it's pointless to do things that don't benefit you because it's a waste of time. You should always spent time doing things that you enjoy but only when you've exhausted the time that should be dedicated to something that will ultimately assist you in your every day life or even your future. That is what I'm saying."

Hashirama shrugs, as if it made no difference to him. "What do you think, Sakura?"

"I agree with you, Hashirama," Sakura says. "I think that regardless of whether it is of practical benefit to you or not, you should just do what you like! Play games! Eat candy! Do whatever!"

Hashirama claps his hands together excitedly. "Yes! That is what I'm talking about, Skipper!"

"Skipper?" Sakura asks, tilting her head to the side. "What's with that name?"

"Remember the last time we talked?" Hashirama asks, waggling his eyebrows at her. "I think it's going to be a keeper. What do you think, Madara?"

"I think you're super annoying," Madara says. Sakura giggles. Madara glances over at her for a moment before looking away, cheeks taking on a dusty pink color. Sakura giggles again while Hashirama awkwardly leans in close to Madara's face, making the other boy bend backwards in order to put a bit of space between their faces.

"Your face is all kinds of red," Hashirama says, raising one eyebrow high toward his hairline. "Are you going to be okay? Have you been out in the sun for too long? Should we go see a doctor?"

Madara shoves him away. "Shut up. I'm fine. Leave me alone."

"What's wrong?" Hashirama asks, leaning in closer, not understanding. "Why won't you let me make sure you're really okay?"

"Because I'm fine, dobe! Leave me alone!" Madara turns his back on Hashirama, turning away each time the other boy tries to step around him to get a good look at his face again. Sakura just stood there, laughing as the two boys eventually launched into a fight with one another. Jumping out onto the water and commencing with a battle.

Sakura sat down on the nearest rock and watched them battle for hours, her eyes wide in awe as she watched them go. They didn't do anything overly fancy in any regular shinobi terms, but Sakura was in complete and utter awe at how smooth and quick they moved. In how fluid their motions were. Everything about them was just beautiful.

Sakura didn't mind sitting there for hours watching them fight. She enjoyed the friendly banter. She enjoyed seeing all of the good hits one boy gets on the other and the cocky smiles they throw at one another. It was like they were the only ones in the world at those very moments. Nothing could ever come between them. They were going to be best friends forever.

"Wow!" Sakura gasps when they finally settle down, panting hard and grinning broadly at one another. "That was absolutely amazing, you guys! Totally awesome!"

Hashirama and Madara both smile at her. "Thanks," Madara says softly, blushing. Or maybe he was red from the exertion?

"Do you want to learn?" Hashirama asks,, walking back over to her.

"What?" Sakura asks, blinking rapidly in confusion. "Learn what?"

Hashirama does a vague gesture around them. "What Madara and I just did. Do you want to learn how to use your chakra?"

Sakura's green eyes are blown wide. "Chakra? You mean I could use chakra? No way!"

Hashirama laughs, smiling brightly. "Yeah! Everyone can use chakra! You just have to learn how to unlock it!"

"And you do?" Madara asks, skeptically, stepping off the water and next to the brown haired boy.

Hashirama beams at his best friend, head bobbing up and down enthusiastically. "Yep! My father showed me how to do it! I even unlocked the chakra of some of my younger cousins before! It's super cool!" Madara actually looks impressed.

"I... see..." he says softly.

Hashirama turns to Sakura, still looking proud. "Would you like to learn, Skipper?"

Excited, and nervous, Sakura nods briskly. "Yeah! I would love to learn!"

 

Two weeks. Two Kami-damned weeks, it took her to finally fully recover from her cold. Two weeks following the encounter she had with Hashirama and Madara. Since then, neither have come to see her, but the planned battles between the Uchiha and the Senju have stopped completely. Now the only things that happen are slight skirmishes here and there.

Sakura spent a great portion of her time looking at all of the pictures on the wall. A lot was old carvings from long ago, but there was some that were newer, drawn in with some form of chalk that has faded slightly over time. They were the drawings of a child. It was odd that they would be there, up on the perch, high above the ground. Some place a normal child would not be able to reach normally. Sakura traced the little drawings of people and houses and families but had to stop when she realized that she was wiping away the chalk and making the picture fade even faster than it originally was.

Sakura didn't know what any of them meant, if they meant anything at all, and left them be.

But once Sakura was finally back to a hundred percent, she packed up all of her things and left that little cave, glad to have found it but so very ready to leave it. She had been cooped up there for far too long and was ready to high tail it out. It was still cold out and Sakura's body ached from laying on hard stone for the last few weeks, so her movements were slow. But alas, like Kami was smiling upon her for the first time since she woke up, she came across a village. There was something about it that is familiar. Sakura couldn't quite place it but it called out to her.

Both in a strange spiritual sense and in the sense that she wanted to find a village for a while now and it was a relief to finally be able to find one. Sakura went to the town and immediately sought out an inn to rest in for the night. She was relieved that she had come prepared for the mission to retrieve Hinabi and had plenty of money on her.

Sakura slept like a baby that night, completely overjoyed by having a nice warm bed to sleep in. It was nothing like her bed back home but it was a hell of a lot better than the rock that she's been sleeping on. She'll take just about anything over the rocks at this point. That's how desperate she's becoming. Sakura actually managed to sleep in longer than she normally would have otherwise.

It was around noon when she finally left the room and walked around the town, buying some more necessities that she needed while she didn't have a permanent place of residence so everything had to find it's way into a storage seal for the time being.

Sakura heads to the market place and walks around, looking at the venders and the shops, curious as to what they are selling. The village was by no means the size of Konoha, but was still pretty big. It was bigger than most. Sakura had to wonder if it would one day become Tanzaku Town just outside the Hidden Leaf village. It was kind of an exciting thought. It was something familiar, a landmark that Sakura was able to identify.

Sakura had gone to Tanzaku Town a few times since she became a ninja, but it was kind of cool to see it back before her village was founded. She hardly recognized it. But she was able to ask someone where they were and that was her answer. Sakura was so happy to hear it. She didn't mind being there. It was close to where Konoha would once be.

Since the fighting has slowed down between the Senju and the Uchiha, Sakura has started to wonder if this meant that the war would be over soon without any more intentional bloodshed. Sakura was a shinobi and understood that sometimes people die, but the more that she could avoid it, the better she would feel in the end. Besides, being a medical shinobi, it was her job to want to avoid death at all costs. It was just who she was. Who she became when she became a medical shinobi under Tsunade Senju.

Sakura was just wondering around Tanzaku, looking around without a care in the world when she heard someone calling out. At first, she didn't really register what she was hearing but as soon as she felt a presence right at her back, she finally heard what they were saying.

"Mommy! Mommy, wait!"

Sakura blinks in confusion right as something hits her in the back and she stumbles forward a few feet. She twists around at the waist to see something small and dirty wrapped around her. Little arms were locked tightly around her thighs with their face buried just above her bottom. Sakura quickly dislodges the hands from around her and lowers to her knees in front of the small, dirty child.

"Honey," she says easily. "I am not your mother. You have me confused with someone else."

The little boy raises his head slowly to reveal a dirty face to go with his dirty dark hair. As soon as his black eyes lock onto Sakura's face, the happiest, cutest smile spreads across his face.

"Silly mommy, I would recognize your pretty pink hair anywhere!" The little boy says, blinking slowly. His long, thick lashes are practically an event. Sakura blinks in surprise, reaching up and touching the tips of her hair, forgetting that she had pulled her hood down to enjoy the sun beating down on the top of her head. She looks down at the boy curiously, wondering if this could be some kind of mistake.

"Honey," Sakura says slowly, "I don't know who you are. I am not your mother..."

The little boy, probably about five, tilts his head to the side, not understanding. "Sure it's you, mommy. It's me, Manmaru. You forgot about me?" The boy frowns, dark eyes shimmering a bit in tears. "You've been gone for so long, mommy. I really, really missed you! Please don't leave me again!" The little boy throws himself into Sakura's chest, wrapping his little arms around her neck and pressing his face into her shoulder, refusing to let go. "I won't let you leave again, mommy. No more!"

With no choice but to pick the boy up, Sakura looks around helplessly, hoping that someone would step out of the crowd and claim the dirty boy. He wasn't even wearing a coat to protect him from the cold and his clothes were a bit shabby. It was obvious that he didn't come from any sort of money. Sakura really felt bad for the boy. She wanted to do everything for this little boy. Just one look at his face really melted her heart. There was something about this boy that made her feel something she didn't understand, nor could she put a name to.

"Manmaru Seto," a woman's voice calls. "Where are you, boy?"

The boy's arms tighten around Sakura's neck right as a woman breaks through the flow of people. Her clothes are brown and older with patches and small tares. Her brown hair is pulled up into a tight bun at the back of her head with a face, line with age and stress. Her dark eyes settle on Sakura immediately and Sakura thought that she would run up to Sakura, snatch the child from her arms and tell her to never touch her son again, but the woman just started shaking her head slowly as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Sakura Seto," the woman says, making Sakura perk up at that, "as I live and breath. I thought for certain you were never going to come back after you dropped that boy off with me. Three days, you said. A week, max! Do you have any idea how long you've been gone?"

Sakura shakes her head, dumbstruck. She really didn't know.

"Three months," the woman spits. "That wasn't what we agreed upon! I was going to put the boy up for adoption, if anyone would have him. He's a real hellion. No one wants a naughty boy like him."

Sakura frowns at the woman's words. How could she say that about a child? He was just a baby! He is going to be rowdy! That's what little boys do. How dare she say something like that.

Sakura's anger must have shown on her face because the woman tuts, sticking her nose up at Sakura. "If I hadn't personally delivered that little hellion from your womb I would believe that spawn from some sort of hell mouth."

Sakura's anger fades away as the woman's words settle into the forefront of her mind. This child was really hers? No, not hers. But the child of the Sakura that lived here before. Sakura Seto.


	4. The Little Boy

Sakura couldn't breath. She was being yanked into many different directions. Not only did she have to deal with everything that this Sakura did in her life - having to own up to someone else's actions - but this is something else entirely. This wasn't like Hashirama and Madara, who were Sakura Seto's childhood friends. They were their own people from beginning to end. Sakura was just a chapter in their young lives, but they were able to grow and live around and beyond her existence. Sakura wasn't naïve enough to believe that she was more important to them than she was.

But this is something completely different. This is a child that they are talking about. A little, innocent boy who lost his mother - and who even knows how that happened - and had her replaced by this Sakura. An imposter.

Sakura knew that women birthed children young in this time period, but if Sakura did the math right in her head, Sakura had to of been - if this Sakura was the same age as her - then she would have been about fourteen years old. Sakura tried to think back to when she was fourteen years old, what she was doing with her life and where she was mature-wise.

Sakura had started her training beneath Tsunade Senju full time while Naruto slipped away with Jiraiya on their journey away from the Hidden Leaf. She had turned her focus from being a little, whiney, cry baby to someone she could be proud of and was well on her way to taking the first steps. She was by no means ready to put her life on hold to get pregnant and have a child of her own. The thought of bearing Sasuke's children was always in the form of childish fantasy. It wasn't something that she really thought about or knew the severity of what being a parent could really be.

Sakura was an only child. She was the baby in the family. She never really had to put people before her in a familial sense. Her parents gave her everything she could have really wanted but never made her responsible for any of it.

But somehow this version of Sakura was able to do what Sakura herself was unsure was even possible for her. She had a child young and even though he's dirty, Sakura can feel the strength in his grip around her neck as he holds onto her and his weight in her arms. He's a cute little boy, but he has weight to him. He eats well and is strong. He's just a bit dirty. That never harmed anyone.

"Sakura?" The woman asks, putting her hands on her hips. "Girl, are you even listening to me?" Sakura doesn't respond, staring off into space. "Bah!" The woman says, waving her hand around dismissively. "Fine by me. Take the little hellion! Like I care, anyhow! A boy belongs with his mother. Don't come asking me for any more favors!"

The woman waves her hands around more, before turning around and walking away.

That's what pulls Sakura from her stupor. With the boy tightly in her arms, Sakura scrambles to run after the older woman. Sakura didn't know what else to do. She didn't want to just be left alone with the small boy. Sakura knew how to take care of children, she was a doctor after all, but she's never been a mother. She didn't know how to be a mother. As much as she loved her own mother, she didn't really see her mother as a very good example. All her mother used to ever tell her was how hard she wasn't working. How she wasn't focusing on what mattered.

For a point of time, Sakura almost wondered if she hated her mother. She hated that her mother wanted her to be the perfect little princess that all the boys would fawn over, rather than being a shinobi. Her mother didn't instill the care for her own life in Sakura that Sakura felt like she should have. Sakura didn't know to really worry for her life and so she never really tried to make herself strong. Just pretty.

Sakura wanted so badly to go back in time and be bale to smack eight-year-old Sakura upside the head and convince her that the only way to make it into the world would be to train her ass off and focus less on boys and more on herself as a person and a shinobi. Sakura wanted to hate her mom for not instilling the desire for being a shinobi, the life she chose, into her.

But at some point, Sakura just decided that she had to take responsibility for that herself. She should have known that her life would be in danger if she didn't do something to learn to protect herself. So she let that annoyance and border lining hatred for her mother go.

There is no way Sakura can take care of this cute little boy. She doesn't know him. She doesn't remember him. What if he's allergic to something and Sakura gives it to him? What would she do then? what if he was allergic to the herbs she would give him to curb his reaction to an allergen? Sakura would never forgive herself for hurting this poor little boy. If he really was the son of the Sakura that she's pretending to be, then he's her responsibility.

Sakura stops in front of what could only be a large shack. The woman shoots her an annoyed look before walking into the shack. As soon as the door opens, Sakura can hear the sounds of children screaming and crying.

"Heavens!" The woman squawks. "I've been gone ten minutes and this place is an absolute mess!"

"What's her name?" Sakura whispers into Manmaru's ear. "The woman who was taking care of you. Who is she?"

"Mommy's friend," Manmaru says, pulling his dirty little face from Sakura's shoulder to look into her eyes with his own very dark ones. "Yuzu-san."

Sakura wasn't so sure that they were friends, but at least now she had a name to the woman who has been taking care of her "son". She wasn't sure what to expect from this woman but if Sakura promised to be back in a week and three months have past and this woman was still watching after this boy for her, than the woman couldn't be all that bad.

Sakura slowly, cautiously, steps into the little home to see that there are three children running around, all dirty and crying. One looks to be ten, one looks to be eight and the youngest appears to be about the same age as Manmaru.

"Clean up this place, messy children," the woman - Yuzu - says, clapping her hands together, frowning both impatiently and unhappily. The kids - all dirty with clothes in much the same style and appearance as Manmaru - are all screaming and crying while they are cleaning up thrown toys and other miscellaneous things that are strewn about. The kitchen, living room and one of the bedrooms, probably Yuzu's judging by the lack of bright colors and children's stuffed animals.

There was a hallway that leads deeper into the house, one is obviously a bathroom that Sakura can see and probably another bedroom for the children to share but Sakura didn't feel right about going in any further, so she just stood by the door and looked around.

"Yuzu-san...?" Sakura says softly, watching as the woman walks around picking up toys and clothes thrown about. "I'm sorry about leaving Manmaru here for so long..."

Yuzu sends Sakura a dark unamused look. "Not as sorry as I am, Sakura. Just take his stuff and go. I have enough to deal with as it is."

Sakura shifts uncomfortably, adjusting Manmaru in her arms a bit. "Do you need some help?"

Yuzu glares at her. "No, I just need to clean up this house and get these kids under control. I was worried sick about you Sakura! I told you I couldn't take care of another little hellion. Why were you away for so long, huh?"

Sakura didn't know how to respond to that. She really had no answers for this woman. Although she seems very crass, now that Sakura is over her initial surprise, there is deep care in the woman's dark eyes. Sakura's disappearance actually affected the older woman. She was upset and worried and even though she said she was going to put Manmaru up for adoption, Sakura is seriously doubting that she would have, now.

"I'm sorry, Yuzu-san," Sakura says, slowly. "I didn't mean to be away for so long. What can I do to help you. Please?" Sakura felt bad. She really did. Even though it wasn't her that did this to Yuzu, the woman was older and had a lot more to deal with. There had to be a reason for this Sakura to have left her five year old son with Yuzu - who has three children of her own to deal with - and just left him there. For three months?

Yuzu stares at Sakura for a moment, studying her face for a moment. Her arms are full of toys and clothes. She lets out a long, drawn out sigh. "Help me clean up." Sakura nods, leaning down to put Manmaru onto the ground.

"No, no!" Manmaru says, shaking his head briskly and holding onto her tightly. "No, I don't want you to go, Mommy."

Sakura's heart breaks a bit. "Honey, I'm not going to go anyway. I'm just going to help Yuzu-san clean the house. Help too, okay? I won't go anywhere."

Manmaru looks up at her with large dark eyes for a moment, making sure she wasn't lying. Once he seems to believe her, he lets her go and starts to help out too. The rest of the kids have finally calmed down and are cleaning up too. They blab and talk to one another while Sakura and Yuzu just work in silence. Sakura didn't really know this woman and she was rough around the edges, but she didn't seem all that bad.

"How are you?" Yuzu asks, frowning, as she cleans off the small kitchen table.

Sakura blinks a few times, looking over at the other woman. "I'm okay. I really am sorry that I was away. There was some... things I had to take care of that I didn't want Manmaru to be involved in."

Yuzu crosses her arms across her chest. "Is this about the boy's father?"

Sakura blinks in surprise, not having thought about that before. Not really. Who was Manmaru's father? Sakura had a very bad feeling about all of this. Not so much about the boy's father, but Sakura can imagine why she's a single mother and the thought alone is pretty horrible, but about why she would leave her son with another woman who obviously has so much on her plate only to awaken in that strange, half underground... hall? Sakura wasn't really sure what it was but it definitely had something to do with those men that were following her.

Even though she has no idea what those men could have wanted from her, she now had that to worry about.

Sakura now had to bring along Manmaru and put him into that danger. It wasn't just about Sakura anymore. Now she had to worry about them trying to hurt or capture or whatever to Manmaru alongside herself. She wasn't the only one anymore. She certainly couldn't ask Yuzu to look after her son. He was her responsibility so she would be the one to look after him.

"No..." Sakura says after too long of a silence. Yuzu just stares at her with narrowed eyes, showing her disbelief plainly on her face.

Sakura was telling the truth. To a degree. Sakura didn't really know what any of this was about. She didn't know why she left Manmaru alone with Yuzu and three small children. She didn't know what to do. What she wanted to do or how she was even going to do it. She was told that she had to help Madara Uchiha and the first Hokage, but no one ever said anything about a son.

"Yuzu-san..." Sakura says slowly, looking up at the dark haired woman. "I'm sorry about being away for so long."

Yuzu harrumphs, shaking her head. She steps into the hall and throws the clothes and toys into a separate room down the hall. Once she gets back into the main room, stepping over Manmaru and the middle boy who have shifted from picking up the toys to playing with them. Yuzu spares them a simple glance before sighing and moving on.

She stops right in front of Sakura, putting her hands on her hips and staring into Sakura's eyes, being about as tall as her. "What will you do now?"

Sakura didn't really have the answer for her, and her immediate reaction was to admit that she didn't know, but then, looking into Yuzu's eyes, she knew that the woman would offer up her home to stay in, even though she was struggling as it was and didn't have the room to accommodate them. Sakura couldn't tell her the truth, even if she wanted to. Even though she didn't have any bad feelings about this woman bit was in fact becoming more endeared toward her, Sakura didn't really need to trust her.

"I have a place to stay," Sakrua says, "but we won't be in town for long."

Yuzu nods slowly, looking away. "Well, stay for dinner, then." She shrugs her shoulders as if she didn't really care one way or the other. But Sakura was beginning to learn better.

Sakura nods. "Sure, thank you."

 

The dinner was very simple, Sakura expected as much. She learned all of Yuzu's kids' names. From oldest to youngest; Kotsu, Noato and Hanbito. She learned that their father was on the village watch and is usually never home. Yuzu didn't say much about it, other than to just shrug her shoulders nonchalantly and pretend that it didn't really matter to her.

But Sakura could tell it wore on her. She must really miss her husband but they are already living in practical squalor, they couldn't really afford to have him cut back any. Sakura could understand that, not from any form of personal understanding, but from a logical and empathetic standpoint.

Sakura packed up Manmaru's meager belongings, sealing them away in a scroll before she took Manmaru's hand and left the house hours later. Manmaru was tired and had to be picked up a few minutes later because he was starting to fall asleep. Sakura cradled his little body in her arms, feeling a powerful swell of protection for this little boy. As much as it confused her, she knew that she had to protect this little boy. While Yuzu took care of him for the past few months, there was only one person in the world who would protect this little boy above all else, and that was going to be her.

Sakura checked into an inn that night and laid beside the little boy, watching him sleep. He was still dirty and Sakura knew he needed to take a bath in the morning and get some new clothes to replace the dirty ones. His belongings were meager, but she did notice something that Manmaru was insistent upon making sure Sakura had and it was a had sewn black cat named Kuro.

Sakura grabs out the scroll and brings forth the little black cat, turning it toward the moonlight to take in the dirty thing. It's missing one of the buttons that are used for it's eyes and there is loose threads at the tip of it's tail acting as tail fur. It was kind of cute. Even if she could make out the poor stitch lines, she could see that there was a lot of painstaking work put into it.

Sakura had to wonder who made it for him. It was probably her, which was unfortunately, seeing as Sakura didn't know how to sew very well. It's probably a trait she's going to have to pick up and perfect a bit if she's going to be dealing with a little boy and a ninja on top of that. She knew how to mend clothes and sutra wounds, but not how to make an actual cat. That was kind of cool.

And perhaps a little telling.

Sakura puts Kuro against Manmaru's side, watching as the little boy curls around it, hugging it to his chest. Sakura runs her fingers through feathery pitch black hair, slowly, not wanting to wake the little boy. She just stared down at the little boy's face, admiring how absolutely adorable he is. His lashes are a mile long and pitch black against his pale flesh. Sakura was completely jealous of how high his cheekbones were.

He was so absolutely adorable, Sakura couldn't even see herself in him. He didn't have her skin tone, her face shape, her eye, mouth, and nose shape. This boy had to of gotten all of his features from his father because he didn't get any of them from her. She runs her fingers through his long black hair, admiring how soft it is before laying her head down and letting him rest without her touching him and possibly waking up.

She may not mentally remember when he was born or who his father is, but this little boy had no one other than her.

If Sakura Haruno was going to have to become Sakura Seto, for this little boy, she would.

Sakura wasn't dumb. She could tell this boy was an Uchiha. The frilly, girly side of Sakura's mind that hasn't reared her ugly head in years made a loud squeal off in the recesses of her mind, but the logical, hard working Sakura was easily able to ignore her. Sakura thought about the possibilities for this little boy's father and the number of Uchiha that she knew was in fact limited, but she didn't have all of Sakura Seto's memories yet. She didn't know if Madara was the only Uchiha that she knew.

That other boy, the one who looked like Sasuke that was what Sakura assumed to be Madara's little brother, also seemed to know her, and not only that but Tobirama-sama as well. Sakura still has to be careful about just assuming things. Just because she doesn't remember meeting the two younger brothers, doesn't mean that she didn't.

But Sakura couldn't really think about it now. She had to get some sleep. Knowing Sakura's luck, Manmaru is going to be up at the crack of dawn anyway so she'd better let her mind rest for now. Think more on it later.

As Sakura should have suspected, Manmaru was up at the crack of dawn wanting to play. Normally she would be bothered by being woken up so early after hardly having any time to sleep but this was different. This gave Sakura a reason to get up and move around. It was a purpose for her. After going through all of this without having any real direction other than to protect the First Hokage and Madara, this was something more solid. Something right in front of her. Something that she could focus on.

It was a bit of a relief.

Sakura and Manmaru went out to get him some more clean clothes before returning to their room and having them both take a bath. First Manmaru, cleaning him up and changing him into a new simple kimono and pants, a fitting black color that matched his eyes and hair, before Sakura took a quick one herself while Manmaru played in the next room with the door to the bathroom ajar so that she would be able to hear him.

Sakura sat down on her bed, hair pulled up into the towel while she takes another and dries out Manmaru's hair.

"Mommy," Manmaru says, petting Kuro's head.

"Yes, Manmaru?" Sakura asks, pulling out a simple comb and working gently on the tangles.

"Where were you? Why were you gone for so long?" he asks, tilting his head slightly to look up at her.

Sakura tilts his head forward as she keeps working. "I'm sorry, Manmaru. I don't have an answer for you. I didn't mean to leave you behind for so long. But don't worry, I'm not going to leave you again." It was true. Sakura wasn't going to hurt this little boy. Not if she had a choice in the matter. This little boy should have to pay for the mistakes of his mother - whatever those may be.

"Will you leave again?" Manmaru asks, little shoulders bowing inward, sadly.

Sakura shakes her head, turning the little boy around and pulling him tightly into her arms. She was not the boy's mother, but one day she would be. She would remember them soon enough, it seems. The lines will begin to really blur. They already seem to when it comes to this boy. Maybe Sakura had a motherly instinct inside of her that awakened when this boy called out to her or the girl this Sakura used to be bleeds into her own feelings and memories.

"No, Manmaru. I won't leave you. I am so sorry for doing so before, but I will stay with you and protect you," Sakura says softly into his damp hair.

The little boy grabs hold of her simple kimono, holding onto it tightly. "I love you, mommy. I'm glad that you aren't leaving, again!" Sakura hugs him a little bit closer.

Manmaru turns around Sakura continues to comb through his hair, gently removing all of the knots that have formed as the little boy continues to play with his stuffed cat. After a few minutes of silence, the little boy calls out to her again.

"Mommy?"

Her heart swells a bit. "Yes, Manmaru?"

"What's that dot on your forehead?"

Sakura blinks in surprise before reaching up and touching her Yin seal on the center of her forehead. "Oh, this? It's my Yin seal. It contains my yin chakra just in case I need it."

Manmaru turns around in front of her and tilts his head to the side cutely, dark hair framing his face. "I don't get it..."

Sakura smiles faintly. "It's alright. I'll have plenty of time to explain it all to you."

Pitch black eyes stare up at her, so beautiful and dark. The eyes of an Uchiha. Yet they are nothing like Sasuke's eyes. Manmaru's eyes are soft and lively and beautifully innocent. They haven't seen anything horrible or scary. They don't know the loss of love or any form of pain this world has to offer. They don't have the Sharingan.

Sakura reaches out and lightly caresses his pale, soft cheek. "I'll teach you everything you need to learn to become a ninja," Sakura says. "You are young, but it is prime time to learn the basics." Sakura smiles softly. "Would you like that?"

Manmaru nods, smiling happily. "Does that mean I get to spend more time with mommy?"

Sakura leans forward and kisses his forehead, the action feeling so natural. "Yeah."

 

They packed up their things - well, Sakura did, Manmaru just played with his toys - and they checked out of the inn. They traveled about an hour away, following a stream so that they would be able to easily return if they needed to but also be provided a bit of privacy to train. Or at least, begin training. Sakura realized that while her that was born and raised here may of have a bit of training with Madara and Hashirama as children, she wouldn't have been nearly as proficient of a shinobi as Sakura is.

Just because he's a small child doesn't mean he can't at least begin learning how to be a shinobi. Besides, unlike Sakura, this boy is from a clan and has clan blood flowing through his body. He'll become more powerful than her in no time if he's anything like the Uchiha in Sakura's time. Sakura hopes so. If this boy became more powerful than her, then she'd have nothing to worry about. She's been doing just fine against these people. She wants to make sure that this adorable little boy would be alright too.

At least, without losing himself. She won't lose this little boy like she lost Sasuke.

Sakura and Manmaru took their shoes off and played in the water, all the while Sakura spoke about chakra, using the flow of the water to explain the flow of chakra and Sakura wasn't surprised that the boy was able to easily answer her questions afterwards with a bit of help. He was definitely an Uchiha and picked up shinobi traits without a hitch.

"Does everyone have chakra?" Manmaru asks, splashing in the water with his feet.

Sakura nods. "Yes. Every living being holds chakra within them. Even the world around us is filled with chakra. It is called nature energy. This energy flows through any and all living beings and only those with the ability of a sage can access the nature energy that flows around us, but everyone can use their chakra so long as they have enough control to maintain it."

Manmaru blinks innocently, not fully understanding, but that was fine. Sakura wasn't going to force him to learn and understand. She was going to let it be a gradual thing, but she would never allow him to mistaken it for an easy ride. He would need to learn how to protect himself merely because of his father's genes making up half of who he is. People will seek him out merely because he is a bloodline holder so far away from his clan.

If Manmaru learns the way of the shinobi and decides not to do anything with it, than that is completely his choice, but Sakura wants him to be able to defend himself should he need to, but that is a future thing. He is small and innocent now, so Sakura will handle all of the fighting and protecting, but she won't be able to guard him forever.

"Can we come back and play again tomorrow, Mommy?" Manmaru asks, as Sakura helps slip his sandals onto his little feet.

"Sure," Sakura says, standing up and wrapping her cloak around herself. "Did you like learning about chakra today, Manmaru?"

Manmaru nods, happily. He takes Sakura's hand and together they walked back to the inn where Sakura booked for another night. Sakura then went out to get some food for them before she spent the next few hours learning about Manmaru.

She learned that his favorite color was blue - which only made Sakura laugh - and that he loves cats. Sakura did in fact make Kuro for him when he was little and that he's used to traveling around because Sakura Seto had become somewhat nomadic but only stayed in the Land of Fire. But he did mention something that she didn't really think about. That he visited her home a few times every year.

"My home?" Sakura asks, green eyes wide. "What was my home like?"

Manmaru's shoulders droop a bit. "It's really sad. You said the fire wiped it out when you were just a young girl. Before I was even born."

Sakura leans back against their shared bed from where they both sat on the floor to eat. Sakura rolls her shoulders back a bit, trying to imagine what it was like. "My home burned? Did I ever say why it was burned down?"

Manmaru looks down with large, dark eyes. "Umm," he says softly. "I don't really remember. Something about a fan?" His thin eyebrows pull together tightly, unable to recall her exact words. He shakes his head after a moment, unable to recall.

Sakura looks around the room slowly, curious. A fan? A fan and fire? Like the Uchiwa fan? The clan symbol for the Uchiha clan?

Sakura wasn't sure if it was Manmaru's words that awakened a memory within Sakura Seto for Sakura Haruno to witness or her imagination got the best of her, but that night Sakura dreamt of a great fire. A fire that was the beginning of the end of the life of Sakura Seto.


	5. Meet

Sakura Seto awoke, feeling deep in her heart that something was wrong. She struggled, pushing herself to her feet - which at one point in time had been a simple task, now with a larger belly such a thing have become quite the trying endeavor - and moved as quickly as she dare toward home. She wasn't exactly sure what it was, but this overwhelming feeling of fear and alertness just wasn't something that she could ignore.

Sakura had fallen asleep beneath the cherry blossom tree by accident. She hadn't meant to be sleeping out in the cold while pregnant, but after the long trek out there - a lot longer now that she was moving slowly - she had to sit down and rest while she waits for Madara. It had been months since she last saw him, the night that they shared together, and had been dying to see him again. She had done everything she could think of to get ahold of him, but after everything that went down, she was beginning to fear that she wouldn't ever get to see him again.

But faithful as always, this particular cherry blossom tree has become a sort of private place where the two of them would meet. More so, she would go there, and whenever he came to see her, that is usually where he found her. She hoped that by going there all day, every day, she would be able to meet with his quicker, but alas, the war has kept him away from her for the entire time.

Sakura didn't even make it over the large hill that blocked her view of her home village before she knew that something absolutely horrible was happening. She could hear the horrible sound of people screaming and buildings collapsing. Sakura grabbed hold of her stomach, a way to balance herself, before huffing it the rest of the way up the hill to stare down at her home village, eyes wide in absolute terror and horror.

Her village was burning.

Now she had a clear sight of the inferno brightening the sky as smoke billowed upward. It was thick and black and impossible to see the moon through.

Sakura knew it was stupid. The logical choice in this situation should have been to turn and run - or, well waddle in her situation - as fast as she could away from there and investigate when the carnage was finally over. But she couldn't just do that. The only thing running through her mind, at that moment, was that her mother was down there.

The pink haired girl couldn't just sit around and do nothing while her village was burning and her mother could be who-knows-where! She had been taking care of her mother for as long as she can remember. Would her mother even be able to get out? Would she even be able to realize that she was in danger? Sakura didn't know, but she couldn't just leave her mother to such a fate. She had to make sure that she was alright.

So Sakura did the silliest, looniest idea someone in her position could have done and went to the village. And what she saw was traumatizing.

Men, women, children, people of all ages murdered in the streets while their homes, possessions and - in some cases even their own loved ones - all burned around them. Staring into their dead eyes, all wide in horror and fear, all seemed to stare back at her. Piercing her with their gaze. Throwing up was the only thing that Sakura could do in that instant. Her eyes and lungs already hurt because of the smoke, but this? This was like a physical punch in the gut. Like five hundred times.

Sakura had to hunch over as much as she could with a pregnant belly in her way and make her way through the streets, after no longer being able to throw up anymore. It was both a good and a bad thing that these attackers were systematically taking out each section of the village.

Good, because it sounded like most of the carnage was on the other side of the village, and bad, because Sakura's home was probably one of the first to be hit. It was odd, though, when Sakura came across her home, because, unlike the rest of the street, there was someone walking out of it. Definitely not someone she knew, and Sakura had to duck down behind one of the other buildings to hide from the man walking out of it.

At first she was confused. What was he doing in her house? Who was he? He certainly wasn't someone that she knew.

But then she saw it.

In his hand was a sword. She didn't remember much about him, but that sword was engrained into her mind forever. On it's hilt, clear as day, was a symbol. A symbol that Sakura recognized as kanji for eternal flames. And the blade was a intricate crystal like color except for the edge, which was darkened with thick, red blood.

Sakura couldn't breath, and couldn't even move as he headed off down the street, away from her. If he had headed her way, Sakura was certain she would have been dead too. She wouldn't have been able to hide from him. All she could do, all she could think about, was stare at the spot that he once stood in her doorway and feel in her very soul that her mother was gone.

 

Sakura laid there, in her bed, with Manmaru in her arms as she stares up at the ceiling, five nights after her dream of the fire. He holds Kuro tightly to his chest and buries his nose into Sakura's shoulder as he sleeps. Sakura moves away slightly and turns to him, running her fingers through his hair a bit, being sure not to wake him, though. He was so small and innocent, and Sakura just couldn't believe that this adorable little boy shared half of her genetics.

It was getting easier to be able to see this little boy as her own. No matter how hard she looks, she can't really see a lot of herself in Manmaru, but he did have a lot of her mannerisms. His pouting face was her own and his cute little glare was her own as well. But there wasn't much else.

They had yet another long day behind them. It's been almost a month since Sakura took back her place as Manmaru's mother and has been carefully, and lovingly, teaching him how to survive. She taught him all about Chakra, it's flow and where it comes from. She taught him all of the handsigns, making sure that he practiced every day so that it was ingrained into his memory, like it was for the rest of the Shinobi world. He would need it.

But Sakura wasn't going to sacrifice his childhood for training. They didn't train all day, every day, or anything like that. Sakura spent as much time as she could making sure that he was happy. She would bring him back to Yuzu's house to visit the other children and see how Yuzu was doing - secretly, because she worried about the older woman but won't say that. That would probably get Sakura kicked out.

Always, though, they would return tot he inn at night. Sakura would hold the little boy in her arms while he falls asleep, and stare at the ceiling, trying to figure out what to do next. She has been keeping an ear to the ground, trying to hear any information in regards to the Senju and Uchiha, but they have been very quiet ever since Sakura met up with them in that little cave.

Sakura lets out a long winded sigh. She really didn't know what to do anymore. There was a very vague future in front of her that she's going to be tripping and stumbling toward. In some ways, it's good to have a sort of direction in life. It's good to have a purpose, but she's coming to fret, almost alarmingly so, that she may not be striving toward it. She needs to break away from this and seek the direction herself.

So many things are still shrouded in mystery. A lot having to do with her past and her future. She just hasn't been able to properly put the pieces together quiet yet and she's beginning to fear that the memories, as they come to her, won't be in the correct order, which means she's going to have to work hard to put the timeline in order for herself. If she will even ultimately need it. If Sakura Seto is taking over in the memories department, what will Sakura Haruno be doing?

She can't keep living this way any longer. Not feeling the way she does - as if she's stuck. She has to move forward.

Sakura curls around the little boy as much as she can and closes her eyes, forcing herself to relax and fall asleep, relishing in the warmth of the little body next to her.

 

Sakura dreams of the her that she's becoming. She is standing under a large cherry blossom tree, looking up at the beautiful flower-like tree. The warm summer air blew on the back of her neck, pulling at her hair and clothes. The wind felt great against the hot sun beating down on her. Sakura smiles brightly up at the tree, just loving the flurry of motion and color.

It was beautiful.

Sakura came out here often to watch the cherry blossom tree blow in the breeze in all of the seasons of the year. She has lived near this tree her entire life and was told once that it was blooming the day she was born and that is what inspired her parents to name her what they did. She didn't used to visit the tree often but since she was no longer able to be with Hashirama and Madara, she found herself there whenever. She's not sure why she always came here, just that she did. She found a sense of peace here.

Her life has slowed down, grown quiet, since Hashirama and Madara left her. She missed them every single day and ached for the moment in which all of them would be reunited once more. She just wanted them to all be together again. She knew that Hashirama and Madara had some business to deal with between themselves, each other, and their clans, but that didn't stop her from missing them.

Sakura runs her fingers through her loose fringe, letting her eyes slip closed for a moment.

Someone wraps their arms around her and Sakura jumps in surprise, turning slightly to see messy black hair resting over her shoulder. She can feel hot breath brushing against her neck.

"Madara," Sakura giggles, resting her hands against the ones wrapped around her waist. "How did you know that I was going to be here?"

"I may not be an expert sensor," Madara says, wrapping his arms around her tighter, "but I am good enough to sense someone who isn't even trying to hide herself. Give me some credit."

Sakura smiles, turning around in the older boy's arms and hugging him tightly. "How are you?" Sakura asks, burying her face in his chest, relishing in the warmth given off by his body heat and dark blue clothing. Madara was always so warm, Sakura just loved it. She always felt so cold. There was always this chill to her skin that felt nice getting rid of whenever Madara was near.

"I'm okay," Madara says, letting out a long winded sigh. "My father has been over-bearing for the last couple of months really pressuring me to stay on the front lines."

Sakura's eyebrows pull together. "To... fight against Hashirama...?"

Madara lifts his head, long, messy black hair falling over his right eye as he stares past her up at the flowing light pink peddles. He doesn't respond right away, dark eyes unreadable. Finally, he says, "Yes. Hashirama is... he is very strong. As a kid I always knew that he was something else, but hearing what he can do on the battlefield, seeing the devastation he can leave behind is..." Madara hesitates a moment, a crease forming between his eyes. "It is unlike anything that I could have imagined."

Sakura's eyebrows pull together. "What does that mean? What is Hashirama able to do?"

"Amazing things," Madara says softly, a touch of pride for his one time best friend slips through, but he ignores it. "Hashirama holds control over woodstyle, something that no one in our clan has ever faced before. Naturally, you would think that wood would be beaten by fire, but his art is so powerful, it'd have to be really hot in order to even slow the branches down. Let alone stop it!"

Sakura's eyes widen in shock. "No way!"

Madara lets out a long winded sigh. "Hashirama, with his infinite kindness, generosity and stupidity. Of course, he would be able to control a prestigious element no one ever knew existed and therefore have no way of fighting against. It's almost some form of poetic justice, I suppose." Madara shakes his head, rolling his eyes. There was a bit of an annoyed curl of his lips. Then he sighs again.

"He's something else," Sakura says, offering Madara a little smile.

Madara lets out a slow, deep breath. "You can say that again."

"I haven't seen him in a while," Sakura says softly, resting her head against Madara's shoulder. "I miss him. I miss the times where the three of us could be together."

"I hate him..." Madara whispers softly.

"Who?" Sakura asks, voice muffled by his shoulder. "Hashirama?"

"No," Madara says softly. "My father. No matter what he does, what he says, it's always so...so wrong. He just doesn't get that Hashirama isn't someone that can easily be defeated. He will sacrifice the clan to stop one man. And I'm not even sure any of us would be able to do it. But that won't stop him from throwing away lives as if they didn't matter."

Sakura blinks slowly, hugging Madara a bit tighter. "Is it really getting that bad?"

"Yes," Madara says after a long pause, sounding pained and defeated. "I don't know how much longer this can go on. I can't watch this anymore."

Sakura doesn't respond right away. She doesn't know what to say. She is detached from the situation because of Hashirama and Madara. They wanted her to have nothing to do with it. They wanted their relationship with her to remain in tact. Sakura was still training and becoming stronger, but no where near strong enough to stand against either of them. But that is not the goal. She was learning for the sake of being with Hashirama and Madara, because they were her friends and that was all that they were able to really bond with.

Now that they are getting older, it's easier to find other things to do, but they don't have as much time to do so. Sakura hasn't spoken to Hashirama in what feels like forever, while she is able to keep in contact with Madara through letters. These times, these moments, where she can actually touch and hold Madara were very precious to her.

"I wish this was all over," Sakura says softly, forcing her thoughts away.

Madara wraps his arms around her tightly, running one of his hands up and down her back before resting his chin on the top of her head. "Me too." His admittance is soft, meant for only her to hear. She was the only one that he would act so vulnerable around. Sakura would never judge him or think of him differently. Still, though, he wasn't a very open person about his emotions. It just wasn't how he was wired.

But that was fine. Sakura didn't want to change him. She loved him for who he was. She didn't want him to change.

 

Sakura opens her eyes, staring at the ceiling of the inn, feeling Manmaru drool on her forearm from where he was resting his little face. Sakura slowly extracts her arm out from under the little boy and sits up slowly. She moves out of the bed slowly, being sure not to jostle the bed too much and wake the little early bird sooner than he needs to be.

She glances out the window for a moment to see that the sky is starting to lighten up. Sakura lets out a little sigh and walks into the bathroom, closing the door with her foot a bit and turns her gaze toward the mirror. She locks eyes with herself in the mirror. It was her own eyes staring back at her, but burned into her mind's eye was the vision of someone who looked like her - younger with long hair and a simple kimono, but still a version of her - curled up in the arms of none other than Madara Uchiha.

Sakura Seto loved Madara Uchiha.

It was such a strange, yet foreseeable turn of events that left Sakura feeling tired, rather than surprised. The possibility of Manmaru being Madara's was always a possibility. Sakura didn't know any other Uchiha in this time and Sakura didn't think that Sakura was playing around with Madara and another Uchiha around the same time. It was just... odd.

Of course the father of her child would be the one man in this time where she honestly couldn't form a coherent opinion on.

On one hand, Sakura wanted to hate Madara. She wanted to hate him, because it's his fault the Uchiha clan died, Sasuke left, Jiraiya died, the Leaf Village was attacked, Asuma died, Neji died and the countless others that had to die in order for the Fourth Great Ninja War to be fought and won. Many of which she had been buried up to her wrists in blood and guts inside them trying to save their lives, and for what? World peace? His own twisted version of it, at least? She didn't want to believe that there was a honorable reason for so many to die and so much to be destroyed.

But on the other hand, he wanted to stop the fighting. He wanted all of the badness in the world to come to an end. He went about it in a sick and twisted way, but his family, his blood, is cursed. That pretty much everything him and his family did since the beginning, is all because of a curse cast upon them by the Sage of Six Paths, even if the old man didn't originally intend for it to be that way.

Sakura just... didn't know what to think. This Madara, regardless of everything that she has been through with the Madara of her time, there was next to nothing with this man. He hasn't done anything wrong. He hasn't done anything that Sakura can really hold against him. He's a young man born and raised in wartime, and just from the one time that she's spoken to him in person and the few memories that she's gained from Sakura Seto of this time, she can't really say that Madara is a bad man.

She just doesn't know. She can't hold a future that might not happen against Madara. That just wasn't right.

But there was definitely something else about the memory that she couldn't ignore: Madara's anger over the war. She wasn't all that sure what to think, really. He seemed genuinely fed up with the war and was ready to be done with it.

She could believe that. The Madara that she knew wanted to stop all wars permanently too, but there was another source of his anger as well. He seemed to have been really upset with his father too. Seeing every choice that his father made lead to the death of someone. Sakura can't imagine growing up in that kind of environment. She can't imagine looking up to her father and watching him kill people. Sakura knew that it was a reality in the world of Shinobi, but on such a magnitude, to be right there and watch it happen, it's got to be taxing on a child.

Madara hated his father because of it. He hated his father for what he had to do. For what he was doing.

And by some form of strange, twist of fate now Madara was making the same decisions his father was making.

How would Manmaru react?

The thought made her shiver. She shutters as the image of Manmaru's face, twisted into an angry scowl just like his father's, flashes across her mind. She couldn't bare seeing something like that.

Could that be why Manmaru wasn't with Madara now? That would make sense, she supposes. Madara wouldn't want his own son to see what he saw.

Unless he didn't know.

Sakura blinks rapidly, feeling an aching pain in her chest at the thought. Madara didn't know? Is it even possible?

No, no. It's not possible. They have been writing letters to one another. She had to of told him about being pregnant. He had to of been the father, so she would have told him.

When she told him she lost her memory, there looked like there was something that he wanted to say, or perhaps something that he wanted to ask. Could that have been what he wanted to say? Or ask?

Sakura lets out a long winded sigh. She just didn't know.

 

"Mommy, can I go play in the field?" Manmaru asks, pointing over to the field on the other side of the river. They have been going to all sorts of random places for training and playing since Manmaru came into Sakura's care. It's been two days since Sakura had that memory of Sakura Seto at the cherry blossom tree with Madara and it's been one of the few things Sakura can think about since.

She's pulled from her thoughts, once more, at the sound of Manmaru's voice. She pauses for a second to think about what he said before she takes a moment to scan the immediate area around them, not sensing any danger, before nodding.

He puts his half eaten riceball down and runs across the water, kicking up a bit of water before making it to the other side, shaking his feet out from the freezing cold water. Sakura packs up their lunch and puts it back into the scroll she originally got it from and cleans up around where they ate, listening to Manmaru with one ear while he babbles on and on about one thing or another, using his imagination to get into conflicts with people and fighting them off. Sakura offers a tiny smile at his childish innocence.

That horrible image of the anger on his face was too much for Sakura to bare. Not him. Not little Manmaru. He should never have that horrible look on his face. She knew it wasn't plausible for that look to never cross his face because of the life ahead of him as a shinobi, but she wanted to keep it off of him for as long as humanly possible. No matter what.

Sakura crosses the river too and sits down a few feet away from her son, watching as he plays around in the dirt, pulling up her hood to block her eyes of the bright sunlight. She stretches her legs out in front of her, crossing her ankles and leaning back on her hands, watching the little boy play. She just loved him so much. He was so innocent and little and she loved him.

Sakura may be able to still tell the difference between herself and Sakura Seto, but the love Sakura had for Manmaru was real. She truly felt it. He is a beautiful, perfect little boy. She honestly couldn't have asked for a better little boy. She was so thankful for having him in her life.

She leans her head back, closing her eyes for a moment letting the sun beat down on her, enjoying the heat. It was nice to take a single moment to just relax, letting her muscles relax. She wished that she could just lay back, enjoy the sun and even sleep for a while, but knew that she couldn't. She could hear Manmaru talking and giggling still and it was one of the many reminders she had going on that kept her focused on the mere fact that she couldn't do any of those. She had to look out for Manmaru. She was his first and last line of defense, especially if she's wrong about Madara knowing about their son.

But she didn't know and as fun as it was having that continuously nag at the back of her mind, she really didn't.

"Gotcha!" Manmaru calls out, leaping onto Sakura's chest, pushing her down onto her back while knocking the air out of her.

She groans loudly, letting out a little wheeze before saying, dryly, "I suppose I deserved that." She should have been paying more attention. Since it's really been warming up for the past few weeks, the snow has been melting and the world is starting to really heat up around them.

Manmaru giggles sweetly, burying his face into her chest and hugging her tightly. "I gotcha didn't I, Mommy?"

Sakura runs her fingers through his smooth, pitch black hair. "You did, Manmaru. Mommy wasn't paying very good attention, was she?"

Manmaru lifts his head from her chest to look at her with the most beautiful bottomless black eyes surrounded by mile long lashes. There cute, tiny crinkles around his eyes from his adorable smile. "Mm-hm!"

Sakura places her hands on his cheeks before pushing them together, making his lips purse outward. Sakura laughs at the fish face before letting the little boy go. Sakura didn't know for certain if Manmaru was Madara Uchiha's son or not - and without having a detailed recollection of the fourteen year old's sexcapades, she wouldn't be able to say for certain one way or the other - but so far she hasn't seen anything in Seto's memories or in her own gut feelings that would say otherwise. Or, at least, offer up another possibility onto the table.

Sakura feels someone coming almost too late. She jumps to her feet and pushes Manmaru behind her, feeling bad when he lets out a little cry of surprise and pain when he landed on his knee.

"Stay behind me," Sakura orders, widening her stance to hide the little boy completely behind her and her cloak.

A moment later, she feels Manmaru press against her, obeying her order. Sakura's eyes scan the open field around them with narrow green eyes spotting two separate groups approaching. One form Sakura's left and the other from almost directly in front of her. Sakura's heart jumps up into her chest as Mandara and Hashirama lead the two groups - on of Senju and one of Uchiha - with their brothers and four Uchiha for Madara and two Senju for Hashirama.

"Skipper!" Hashirama says, brown eyes wide as the Senju approach from head on. He deviates slightly so that he stops a few feet away from Sakura. She slowly relaxes her posture but makes sure to keep Manmaru behind her, heart pounding loudly in her ear.

"Sakura," Madara says once he gets close, casting a slow glance Hashirama's way before returning his gaze to her. "What are you doing here?"

"I was wondering the same thing," Sakura says, looking between the two clan leaders with narrowed eyes. "What's going on here? Is there going to be some sort of fight? Let me know so I can get the hell out of here," Sakura says, glancing between the two.

"No," Hashirama says, shaking his head almost immediately after she asked about a possible fight. "No, Skipper, we aren't here to fight. In fact, we are here to talk about our future."

Sakura's eyebrow quirks upward. "The future for the two of you?" Trying to calm her heavily beating heart she says, slowly, "Big marital plans in your future?" She jokes poorly.

Hashirama and Madara stare at her without understanding. Kind of like the rest of their party, except for, surprisingly, the Sasuke-look-alike Izuna. He snorts, hand flying to his face as his eyes widen. Sakura is pleasantly surprised to see a face so similar to Sasuke's filled with such mirth.

He clears his throat, embarrassed, when everyone else turned to look at him.

"Sorry," he says, rubbing the back of his head before rolling his shoulders back.

"I don't get it," Hashirama says, tilting his head to the side.

"She is suggesting that the two of you will go frolicking through the plains gayly together in holy matrimony," Tobirama says blandly and Sakura felt a shiver of laughter tug at her throat, but she managed to keep it under control. But the big smile on her face was difficult to fight against.

Hashirama gives Sakura the biggest pout ever. "Ahh, Skipper! Why do you have to go saying something like that?"

Madara frowns deeply, putting his hand on his forehead and turning away slightly. He lets out a long winded sigh, as if not knowing what to say, but he did cast a little glare her way. Sakura closes her eyes for a moment, unable to believe she had just said that, yet somehow felt that somehow Sakura Seto had something to do with it. It could be either her sense of humor, or her sense of friendship with the men that compelled her to tease them - but she's not sure.

Sakura forgot. She couldn't believe it. In the short time she had been bull shitting with them, she had completely forgot. But it all came back when a soft, little voice behind her called out to her.

"Mommy? Are they your friends?"

All the men froze. Hashirama's eyes blown wide while Madara's head snaps upward, single visible black eye also wide, all staring at Sakura seeing as she was the only one there who could be a mommy.

Sakura looks down as Manmaru steps to her side, staring right up at Madara. Two sets of pure black eyes lock on to one another and by the look on Madara's face. The way his eye widened even more, his jaw dropped and this horrible look pulled his eyebrows close together, Sakura knew in that moment without a shadow of a doubt that Madara had absolutely no idea about the cute little Uchiha boy Manmaru Seto.


	6. Summoned

Manmaru stares up at Madara with innocent, wide black eyes. Madara has this look on his face, like he's staring at his own grave that's dated for today. His mouth closes for a moment before falling open once more, not able to really process what he's seeing in front of him.

He's not the only one, though. His brother, Izuna, is staring down at the little boy in much the same manner as his brother. Tobirama is frowning, red eyes flickering between Madara and his son, concentrating on something in his thoughts. Trying to decide on something. One of Hashirama's hands is brought up to his face, brown eyes wide. And the looks on the Uchiha and Senju with them was surprise, worry, and a lack of understanding.

Manmaru blinks one more time before the cutest smile spreads across his face and he bounces up and down, opening his arms wide toward Madara. "Daddy! Daddy, it's you!"

Madara, who seemed to already be loosing the strength in his legs and was sinking to the ground, finally dropped to a knee in front of the little boy, black eyes wide. Manmaru mistakes the action and runs into Madara's chest, wrapping little arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.

For a strained, frightening moment, Sakura thought that Madara was going to rip Manmaru's arms out from around him and throw him away, but instead he slowly wraps his arms around Manmaru, pressing his mouth and chin into the little boy's shoulder. The way his head is angled his hair is pushed out of the way so that Sakura could see both of his eyes. They are wide, blinking slowly before he closes them tightly and hugs Manmaru to him.

"Hi, daddy," Manmaru says.

Madara pulls back a bit, as if he didn't believe the little boy was talking to him, only to see Manmaru staring into his eyes. He was the one that Manmaru was talking to. "Hi," Madara says softly, dark eyes scanning Manmaru's face, as if trying to engrave it into his memory. Manmaru smiles, bringing one of his hands back and touching Madara's cheek, as if doing the same and engraving the face of his father into his memory.

Manmaru turns to look up at Sakura, the biggest smile on his face. "Look, mommy, it's daddy!"

Sakura didn't know what to say. This is quite obvious the first time that Madara has ever seen Manmaru, yet somehow Manmaru was able to pick Madara out as his father. That didn't make any sense to her. Unless Madara was really good at acting, Sakura couldn't believe that he has seen Manmaru before and is still acting like this. It couldn't just be for show, she's sure.

"I see him," Sakura finally says, but stops there. She didn't know what else to say.

"A child?" Izuna says, looking like he couldn't believe what he's seeing. "He's a..."

"Seto," Sakura says, green eyes flickering over to the younger black haired man. "His name is Manmaru Seto. He's my son."

"And mine," Madara says, staring up at Sakura with a mixture of emotions on his face. "He's mine, isn't he? He said so."

"He's a child," Sakura says simply. "But yes. He's yours."

"Why?" Madara asks softly, voice cracking a bit, betraying how upset he really is by this entire situation, making Sakura feel bad. "Why didn't you tell me about him?"

To be honest, Sakura didn't know for sure. Without having all of Sakura Seto's memories, she couldn't accurately say why she didn't tell Madara - who was obviously the man she loved - that she was pregnant with his child. It didn't make a lot of sense to Sakura, but without really understanding Sakura Seto's side of the story, then she's not sure that she can really say one way or another.

"I don't know," Sakura says honestly, staring into Madara's eyes. "I don't remember."

Madara frowns a bit, probably recalling Sakura's admittance about not remembering a lot about her life. Thankfully, he can't blame her for not knowing right now, but it doesn't mean he can't be bitter about it. A part of him seemed like he wanted to push the issue, insist that she try hard to remember what she forgot, but she couldn't. The memories are coming back with time. There is little else that she can do other than wait.

Madara looks around unhappily, hugging Manmaru close again before the little boy pulls back and stares into Madara's eyes. "Daddy, are you done with your business? Mommy says we can only be together when you're done."

Madara frowns at that. "My business?" Then he realizes, dark eyes flickering over to Hashirama, obviously having forgot that he was there. Manmaru was a very efficient distraction.

Hashirama lowers down to his knees next to Madara and Manmaru, smiling kindly when Manmaru stares at him curiously. "Hello, Manmaru," Hashirama says softly, offering his hand for him to take. "My name is Hashirama Senju, I'm a..." a moment of hesitation before he continues, "I'm a friend of your father's."

Manmaru smiles shyly, reaching out and taking Hashirama's hand, giving it a little shake. He looks over at Sakura, blushing. "Mommy's friend, too?"

Sakura nods. "Yes."

Manmaru smiles at Hashirama, who smiles charmingly back, making Manmaru blush and lean his head against Madara's. It was a very mundane but adorable action where he would turn his head toward Madara, rubbing his nose into Madara's cheek in embarrassment. He would turn a bit to look over at Hashirama, see the man still staring at him, and smiling more, and the little boy would giggle and bury his nose into Madara's cheek again, his hand still in Hashirama's.

Sakura didn't know what to think, but she's happy to see that he's not throwing Manmaru away or anything, which is great. She's actually happy to see that he doesn't appear to be planning on letting Manmaru go any time soon. It makes Sakura's heart clench in happiness at the sight of it. While her thoughts on her own feelings toward Madara are confusing when in depth thought is applies, on the most basic of levels, she likes him. At least the him that she sees in Sakura Seto's memories and the way that he is with her son.

If nothing else in the world, that she can appreciate. And so for the next few minutes she just sits there and watches them together. Manmaru was blabbing on and on in fragmented sentences, so excited to see Madara that he barely finished one thought before moving on to the next one. Madara just patiently listened to the little boy talk, occasionally asking questions or making a noise of interest but otherwise remained silent.

"We should get going," Sakura says softly, holding her hand out for Manmaru to take. He looks at her for a moment, reluctantly, before reaching out and taking her hand and stepping away from Madara. "You guys came here for a reason, right? I am sorry for taking up much of your time."

"Wait," Madara says, standing up. "You don't have to go." He sends a glance down at Manmaru, who stares up at him innocently. He obviously wasn't ready to part ways.

"We do," Sakura says. She pulls Manmaru close. "We have a ways to go to get back to the inn and this little boy needs a bath before dinner and bedtime." She looks down at Manmaru and smiles a bit when he pouts up at her.

"But mommy, I want to stay with daddy," Manmaru says, giving her puppy dog eyes.

Sakura shakes her head. "No, Manmaru, you are coming back with me. Daddy still has some things that he has to do."

"Nothing so pressing," Madara says. A pause, then he spares a glance over at Hashirama, as if remembering again that the Senju were still here with them. He presses his lips together. "Or, perhaps..."

Hashirama holds up his hands. "It's alright, Skipper. We can go for today. It wasn't something that had to be discussed right now. There is always tomorrow."

Sakura felt torn for a moment, looking down at Manmaru who was still staring up at her, begging with his eyes to be able to spend more time with Madara. In a perfect world, Sakura would say fine and let Madara care for Manmaru for the night, or even stay with them or something and spend more time with them, but Sakura got this feeling in her gut, so strongly that she couldn't ignore it.

Now was not the time. Manmaru and Madara couldn't really be together just yet.

She didn't know how she knew it or why she felt that way but she did. All Sakura could hear was Madara whispering in her ear how much he hated his father. Hated the choices that he made - whether willingly or out of necessity - and then the overwhelming desire somehow a fusion of Sakkura's desire and that of who could only be Sakura Seto floods through her being as a new voice whispers into the shell of her ear.

"I hate father. Why does he have to be a monster?"

It was Manmaru's voice. Like a sick premonition of the future, he voice was clear as day and although it sounded older, there was something about it that just screamed it being Manmaru's voice. No, Sakura couldn't bare it. She wouldn't let Manmaru within a thousand leagues of the Uchiha and Senju clans in whole so long as they were in a war with one another. Madara may have turned out to be a good young man while still hating his father but Sakura feared that lightning wouldn't strike twice.

No. There was no way that Sakura was going to allow that to happen. Being an Uchiha ruined Sasuke's life, Obito's and Madara's life - at least in her timeline it did. It won't ruin Manmaru's. She's going to protect him, no matter what.

"I'm sorry," Sakura says, shaking her head. She rolls her shoulders and hardens her features. "Manmaru is coming with me. He cannot be with the Uchiha right now. Not during wartime. I'm sorry."

"What?" Madara asks, eyes widening in surprise.

"Are you kidding me?" Izuna asks, taking a step closer.

Sakura yanks Manmaru behind her, eyeing the other Uchiha boy wearily. Madara sees the mistrusting look on Sakura's face and pushes Izuna back a bit, giving him a warning look before holding his hands out for her to see as sign of surrender.

"Skipper," Hashirama says, drawing her attention to him, standing finally. "We won't attack the Uchiha camp, I promise. Manmaru will be safe there." Sakura glances over at him, locking eyes with the nature sage, and believes him. He has no plans of attacking anybody.

Tobirama watches the exchange with keen red eyes, not speaking as Sakura says, coldly, "No, the Senju are not the problem." Then, realizing how that sounded, quickly continues, "Nor is it technically the Uchiha either. I just can't have him be with the Uchiha now. Not while you are in war."

"There is no more fighting," Madara says, a desperate edge to his voice that Sakura is almost certain she imagined.

Sakura almost wants to give in. Admit that maybe she's being too overprotective, but she couldn't. Between her own bad feeling and Sakura Seto's tugging at the back of her mind, she couldn't give in, even if she felt that she was being perhaps too cruel. She had to make him understand. She wasn't doing this to hurt him. This wasn't revenge for what the Madara of her timeline did. It really wasn't.

"I'm not punishing you," Sakura says slowly, staring at Madara, who looks like she literally ripped his heart out of his body. Not so much on his face, but his eyes. The skin around his eyes were red and so is his chest, which is partially revealed by his loose kimono, proving that there was no plans for battle this day. Only the guards were armed, not the two sets of brothers.

But it was surprising how red Madara's chest was getting. It's obvious that he's upset but it's like he's containing it so deep inside that his body is physically reacting to his pain. Sakura feels like a huge ass hole.

But she can't back down. Not on this.

"I am not punishing you," She says again. "I will not allow it to happen. I will not let him hate you."

Madara blinks a few times. Even though Hashirama and Izuna look like they want to argue with her too, her words are obviously not what they expected. As much as she really hates herself right now, she's not keeping Manmaru away from Madara just because she thinks that Madara would be a bad father. It's the situation. In a war camp, Manmaru would be subjected to who knows what, and while she's sure the Uchiha as a whole are halfway decent people, anything could happen. Any number of incidences could lead to those horrible words leaving her son's lips. She simply could not take the change while they were in war.

As if somehow being in a village made it different.

But it did. It stopped being about ideas, and about the people. It was a them or us mentality when it comes to protection that made the situation just a touch better. Sakura would always have to worry about Manmaru falling prey to the Curse of Hatred, but she knew that she was going to need Madara's help to break him from it should it ever happen. Madara wouldn't be able to help her if he's the reason for Manmaru being cursed.

"You can't simply promise me that nothing is going to happen while he's with you. While I'm sure you'd be able to protect him, and would," she says slowly. "I don't want his first real impression of his father ordering people's deaths or killing them himself. My son shouldn't have to associate his father with killing and evilness. He should love you and your family because half of him is you," Sakura says. "He won't hate you for the decisions you make during wartime that you hated your father for."

Madara's lips part, probably to protest, but his jaw snaps shut at those words.

Perhaps it was because he is so pale, but Madara's chest is completely red now, along with the skin around his eyes. He's very upset and it's showing on his body. He keeps blinking rapidly to clear his eyes and looks around, trying to settle down. But he can't hide from Sakura, especially since she is right in front of him and having a front row seat to his silent self destruction by her hands - er words.

"I'm not like my father," Madara says softly, head tipping forward so that his bangs fall to cover one of his eyes. "I won't make the same mistakes."

"I believe you," Sakura says, and she's surprised that she does. "I'm not saying that you can't come see him at all. You can come and see him whenever you want. I won't stop you. I'm just saying that he can't be in that situation right now. I know you must think I'm unfair or being a bitch, but I simply can't. I'm sorry."

Sakura wasn't sure why he was in so much pain, but when he closed his eyes, he looked so utterly defeated. Like she just told him he would never see his son ever again. There is something very obviously going on. She's close enough to see Madara's eyelashes getting wet, physically so distraught that he can no longer contain it.

And it's scary.

Sakura couldn't explain it. She doesn't understand why he is acting this way or why Izuna's hands are gripping his shoulders trying to somehow make him feel better, or how Hashirama looks like he wants to say something more but isn't sure what that is, or even how Tobirama actually looks away, like he couldn't bear feeling Madara's pain, even if it was somehow second hand.

Something very weird was going on.

But Sakura couldn't dwell on it. She couldn't allow herself to. It may not be what Manmaru wants now, but what he needs. Sakura felt like the biggest bitch in the entire world, especially when Manmaru began to protest as she walked away, pulling the little boy along. He drags his feet, he doesn't want to go.

She turns around and picks him up, no longer able to look at Madara. She couldn't look at his chest reddening anymore. She couldn't look at the skin around his eyes reddening anymore. She couldn't look at his slightly trembling hands or shuttered breaths anymore. Sakura knew she had to just turn and walk away. Walk away from Sakura Seto's friends, lover, and the broken hearted father of her child.

"Mommy? Mommy, I want to be with daddy," Manmaru says. "Mommy? Why can't I be with daddy? Where are we going? Where are we going, mommy? Mommy," Manmaru calls out as Sakura scoops down to pick up the rest of their lunch and keeps going in one fluid motion, "why is daddy crying, mommy? Why are you crying?"

Sakura wasn't crying. Sakura Seto was.

Once she is far enough away that she dare look back, she is surprised - and perhaps not so surprised - to see Madara had sank to his knees with Hashirama at his side, arms wrapped around his friend's shoulders.

Sakura felt bad. She felt horrible. She felt dirty and nasty. She felt like she would fall through the earth at any moment and into hell. She felt like she had no other choice. The image of Manmaru, eyes red with the sharingan and whispering angry words flashes across her mind. She couldn't let that happen. She just couldn't.

Something is going to happen, she knows it. She just doesn't know what.

 

"Sakura!" Her mother calls out to her. "Sakura, honey! I need you!"

Sakura jumps to her feet and runs out of her room and into her mother's room. "Mom, what are you - " she cuts off, seeing a mess around the room. All the newly folded laundry was all strewn about. "Mom," Sakura says, eyes widening. "Mom, what is going on in here? What are you doing?"

Sakura's mother, a dainty woman with large, doe like eyes and stringy red hair. Her feet are dirty and her hair is a mess. She looks more like a teenager herself rather than a mother. It wasn't because she was a bad person but that she simply couldn't take care of herself. For as long as Sakura could remember, she's been caring for her mother. Ever since she was a small child she's done everything for her mom.

People used to say that her mother was... different. That she wasn't fit to have children. That she wasn't very smart and never really thought all that much. Sakura didn't really understand that as a child but as she grew older all she knew how to do was take care of her mom. It was just something that she got used to and no longer thinks about it.

"Mother," Sakura sighs, walking around the room, picking up the clothes.

"I'm sorry, Sakura," her mother says, pushing her messy red hair from her face. "I... I don't know why I did that." She runs her hand over her forehead, eyes squeezing shut for a moment before shaking her head. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Sakura pauses picking up the cloths to lean down and kiss the top of her mother's head. "It's alright, mom. It's alright."

"I did it again," She says, shaking her head a little more violently. "Um... um..." she squints her eyes, trying to vocalize her thoughts, but ultimately couldn't and gave up. Distracted by something else, perhaps.

Sakura wanted to lean down and hug her mother, comfort her, because she really wasn't mad and even though this was something that has happened many times before, Sakura didn't blame her mother. She didn't hate her mother or resent her. In fact, in some ways she feels that it makes her closer to her mom, always being by her side to make sure that she's okay.

But even though it was her mother and she wanted to hug her, Sakura knew she couldn't. Her mother wasn't very good with a lot of physical contact unless she initiates it.

Sakura's mother adapts this look on her face that Sakura recognized. Her mother looks around the room without a hint of outward recognition, fingers wiggling in her hair before she thinks of something - Sakura's not sure what - and starts to giggle at it before standing up and leaving the room. Sakura takes this time to clean up the room, not bothering to fold the laundry this time and just leaves it in a pile in the corner before heading back into her room to grab a haori to put over her shoulders before heading outside to catch her mother over by her flowerbed.

It was one of the few things she was gentle with. The flowers in front of their house that her father planted for her. Sakura's dad is a traveling merchant. He's often on the street for long periods of time - until about two years ago, when Sakura was ten - when he left and never came back. Sakura has no idea what ever happened to her father. Did he get killed on the road? Did he just leave them and never come back?

Sakura didn't know.

She didn't want to think that her father would just up and leave, but she didn't know what else to think. She didn't want to think that he went out onto the road to support them only to die somehow, alone. It just didn't seem fair. It just didn't seem like that was how it should have been.

But, alas, as the years passed she is starting to lose the image of her father's face in her mind. And she's starting to lose the hope that he will somehow, someday, come back to her and her mother.

"Sakura!" Her mom calls out to her, pulling her from her thoughts. Sakura's mom waves her hand around wildly without taking her eyes off of the flowers in front of her. "Come! Come here!"

Sakura walks over to her mother, kneeling down next to her to look at flower bed to see a new flower finally sprouting, blooming into the new spring.

"Beautiful!" Sakura says, green eyes like her mother's lighting up. "It looks wonderful, mom!"

Sakura's mother claps her hands excited, green eyes wide. "Yes! It's my favorite color. Um, the purple! The purple is my favorite color!"

Sakura nods, having known this. "Yeah," she leans close to her mother, relishing in the warmth she can feel radiating off of her. "It's a very pretty purple color. I like it too."

Sakura awoke the next morning with tears in her eyes. Little Manmaru sleeping peacefully next to her. She turns into the little boy and curls around him as much as she can, feeling Sakura Seto's pain. Sakura Seto missed her mother. Sakura was starting to miss her too.

 

It was about two weeks since Manmaru and Madara met. To Sakura's surprise, she hasn't seen any of them since. Every day Manmaru asks if he can go and see Madara and every day Sakura says that he's going to have to wait just a little bit longer. He would whine and cry, but Sakura couldn't tell him anything else. It was just going to take some time.

A part of her wondered if perhaps Madara hated her. She would understand if he did, but she couldn't understand why he wasn't there now trying to see his son. The same boy that he was so distraught over leaving isn't here right now. It was a little strange. She has to wonder what is going on. A part of her wonders if Madara simply couldn't find her, but then she knew that wasn't true. He would be able to find her and his son if he looked. He just isn't looking right now and there had to be a good reason why.

Sakura and Manmaru were sitting in their room. Sakura was reading from a scroll she got from the market while Manmaru was playing on their bed with Kuro when there is a knock at the door. Sakura blinks in confusion, looking up from the scroll for a moment before standing up, laying the scroll down next to Manmaru and walks over to the door slowly. They don't get guests.

She opens the door slowly, peaking out of the small crack to see armor. She opens the door a bit more, surprised to see - not Madara - but Tobirama standing there, staring at her.

"Sakura," he says, once she opens the door all the way.

"Tobirama-sama," Sakura says, surprised to see the future - would it really be the future since this is a different timeline it seems like? - Second Hokage standing in front of their door, "what is going on?"

"Can you come with me?" Tobirama asks, staring down at Sakura with narrow red eyes. "You and Manmaru."

Sakura's on edge. This is the Hokage - or would he be? - of her home village and a part of her wants to immediately trust him, but her instinct as a mother made her protect of her son, especially since he's being asked for.

"What's going on..?" Sakura asks slowly, not sure how smart it is to outwardly deny his request. "Has something happened?"

Tobirama shakes his head. "Nothing is wrong, if you are worried about that. Hashirama asked I retrieve you and Manmaru. We are signing the peace treaty with the Uchiha today and he wanted to surprise Madara by having you and Manmaru there. Will you accompany me?"

Sakura blinks in surprise. "You guys are signing the treaty today?" Tobirama nods. "That's great! Is that why Madara hasn't come to see Manmaru? He's been busy with..." she waves her hand around. "Well, whatever comes with preparing a clan to ending a war?"

Tobirama nods slowly. "I would assume. It's not as simple as just leaving camp to sign a treaty. A lot of preparation has to be made before hand on both sides to ensure it goes as smoothly, and fairly, for both sides as possible. I don't claim to know exactly what the Uchiha have been up these last few weeks but if I had to speculate, that would be it."

Sakura nods, more to herself than to the white haired man. "Okay. Give me a moment to get Manmaru ready and then we will come with you."

Tobirama tips his head a bit. "Good. I will wait outside the building. Come to me when you are finished and then we can go."

Sakura quickly closes the door and turns around to look at the adorable little black haired boy looking up at her curiously. "Who was that?" He asks.

"A friend," Sakura says, unable to contain her smile and excitement. "Are you ready to go see daddy?"

Manmaru's face lights up completely and he jumps to his feet. "Yeah! Let's go now!"

Sakura catches him on his way to the door. "Wait, jellybean, you need to change out of her pajamas first. The we will go."

So, they both quickly change, Sakura tries to brush Manmaru's wild black hair a bit but the little boy was just not having it, too impatient. He's definitely ready to see his dad. Sakura puts her cloak on and helps Manmaru crawl onto her back so that they can travel faster. She makes sure that she's got a good grip on him sot hat he won't fall off of her once she starts running, before leaving the room, locking the door and exiting the inn to find Tobirama waiting for them right outside the inn like he promised.

"Alright," Tobirama says, turning to face Sakura and the little boy on her back. "Let us get moving, then."


End file.
